Yemen to celebrate Arbor Day through efforts of SYFF

As with many other countries around the world, Yemen will celebrate the Arbor Day in June 5 as a tribute to a history that was built largely on trees and preventing their destruction. The push for making this celebration in Yemen possible has largely come through a new NGO known as Save Yemen's Flora and Fauna (SYFF).  

Yemen is considered one of the most beautiful countries in the Middle East because of its vast wildlife, moderate temperature, heavy rainfalls, and beautiful landscape. However, as with many parts of the world, Yemen is now, more than ever before, under continuous change due to the pressures of development and increased human activity. 

These pressures have had a direct effect on Yemen's diverse ecosystem leading to desertification, the endangerment and extinction of flora and fauna, some of which is unique to Yemen, and increases natural disasters including floods and landslides.

Therefore, after much discussion and planning, a number of young professionals, students, environmentalists, and conservationists are coming together in an effort to counter these phenomena which are directly threatening Yemen's delicate ecosystem. The result was SYFF. 

SYFF is a non-profit organization, which will work with environmentalists, conservationists, agricultural engineers, professors and politicians at many levels, both Yemenite and non-Yemenite, in an effort to slow and reverse the problems facing Yemen's ecological environment. They understand that with modernization, development and urbanization, the natural environment will be directly affected and reshaped. However, one of their aims is to raise awareness regarding the detriment that this has on the landscape since it will have a direct effect on human sustenance and survival. This is evidenced by the decreasing underground water supply which continues to decrease in all parts of Yemen, particularly in Sana'a. 

Yemenites and non-Yemenites from across the globe are reaching out to humanity in an effort to unite so that they can counteract the actions that have contributed to such phenomena. Through activities such as educational lectures and seminars, limitation of human activity, reforestation, irrigation, and preservation of wildlife they can make a difference in saving Yemen's flora and fauna. This will ensure a more promising and fruitful future for the generations to come. It will also help minimize the effects of climate change world wide.

Yemen has always been considered Arabia Felix, meaning "beautiful Arabia" in Latin, since ancient times because of its diverse ecosystem. So, the SYFF organization tries to preserve the treasure that Yemeni predecessors left behind before it is too late by celebrating the Yemen Arbor Day under the slogan “Put the ‘Felix’ back in Arabia, Plant a Tree!” 

"Join us for Yemen Arbor Day to give thanks for these precious gifts from Allah by planting trees in our denuded landscape. Help make Yemen a country whose forests are expanding, not shrinking as they are everywhere else," David B. Stanton, the Chairman of the Yemen Ornithological Society and the Coordinator of the Yemeni Leopard Recovery Program. "Help return Yemen to the natural state that has nurtured us throughout the thousands of years of our history.  Celebrate life and plant a tree."

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