JNF & GLOBAL WARMING

War creates countless casualties. But alongside the civilian deaths, the humanitarian disasters and the economic crises, there is a hidden cost that has potentially devastating consequences for the health of the planet.

War decimates the environment. The profusion of airborne weaponry used in modern combat causes fires and explosions that destroy nature's invaluable bounty. But the Earth is poised at the edge of environmental disaster; we cannot afford to lose any more life-giving trees. Deforestation is already threatening our ecosystem. The loss of natural forests, from Bali to Brazil and back, is responsible for more dangerous greenhouse gas emissions every year than the entire global transport sector.

Since its inception in 1901, the Jewish National Fund has collected donations towards the greening of Israel, planting trees across that arid nation and slowly but surely transforming the desert into a place of life, where agriculture and human habitation can flourish. The JNF is at the forefront of international environmental research, pushing the boundaries in reforestation, desert agriculture, water recycling and land reclamation. And now, the JNF is gathering its forces to rehabilitate the forests of the Galilee.

The Israel-Lebanon war that rocked the area earlier this year had devastating consequences for the JNF's carefully tended forests in this greenest area of Israel. In those 33 days of fighting, 12,000 families were displaced and their homes destroyed. The 3,970 missiles that were fired into Israel's prime tourist destination eventually destroyed 750,000 trees. Over seventy-five percent of forest in the beautiful Naftali Mountains was burned to the ground. Biriya and Bet Keshet forests each lost close to 500 acres.

The JNF sprang into action as soon as the war began. Most of the trees lost were not destroyed by the missiles themselves, but rather by the dangerous wildfires they sparked off, similar to those that periodically threaten the beautiful environs of Cape Town's mountainous coast. These wildfires decimate the trees themselves and also all the bird and animal life that shelters in them, destroying delicate ecosystems and seriously damaging the soil and its structure.

A fire-fighting strategy is in place to deal with isolated wildfires, but even this cannot cope with the devastation wrought by constant shelling. The JNF's 12 ground crews, nine fire trucks and 100 staffers were present at over 600 incidents during the war, along with air support from planes using the latest fire retardant technology to stop the spread of the blazes. The JNF supplies equipment and training for these brave teams, who face the fires as well as the threat from combat weaponry.
But putting out fires is only half the job. Now that the war has ended, the JNF is committed to rescuing these forests and making the Galilee a cradle of life once again. Rehabilitation is a long, slow and complex process, and the estimated cost of restoring the forests and grazing areas that were lost is $20 million. JNF nurseries have already begun preparing 200,000 new seedlings for planting. Some forest areas will be kept under observation and permitted to recover naturally; others, more deeply damaged, will be built up again from nothing.

Israel is just the start of the process. The JNF's eco initiatives have also spread to South Africa, where they established the President Nelson Mandela Park in Mamelodi and the Walter Sisulu Environmental Park in Delft, Cape Town, ensuring that children here have free access to precious green spaces. The JNF funds international research to fight desertification and educational projects that teach kids of all denominations about the importance of environmental awareness. This pioneering organisation hopes to spread its message across the globe, guarding the natural resources that are our greatest wealth and our children's greatest legacy.