Taking Care of Mother Earth

By: Diana Castro

One of the things that happens when you become a volunteer is that you work with many young people in the community. This is something that I really like and fills me with joy. It also gives me the opportunity to get to know many passionate youth and their love for everyone’s home, which is this beautiful world.

On one occasion I entered the Alta Montaña (High Mountain) in the Montes de Maria (Maria Mountains), with the opportunity to participate in two days of planting 600 trees in two different communities. I got to cross paths with young men and women in this mutual learning of how to care for our mutual home. Together we planted a variety of tree species that the same young people had previously grown from seeds in the community nursery.

There were trees of all different species and here are a few in their regional and scientific names: Caracolí (Anacardium excelsum), Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra), Ceiba (Hura crepitans), Arrízal (Brownea Ariza), among others. All of this is done to hopefully recover part of the river and increase this section of the dry tropical forest that is situated where there are many farmers, all while conserving this point of water and helping to preserve animal and plant biodiversity because all organisms are an important part of this ecosystem. We also do this because if not one could increase the flow of land erosion that would result in property loss.

We have already encountered an increase in environmental contamination and climate change, so it is necessary that we make lifestyle and consumer changes in order to protect the environment, keeping in mind that we need to protect our home we share called Earth.