Zulu King Goodwill Zwelethini and South African President Jacob Zuma, along with 30 000 maidens, highlighted the threat of Climate Change by planting trees to help mitigate its effects at the annual Reed Dance Festival this past weekend.

The annual Royal Reed Dance festival (Umkhosi woMhlanga) at Kwa-Nongoma, which performs the cultural role of unifying the Zulus and their king, takes its name from the riverbed reeds carried in a procession by thousands of Zulu maidens who are invited to the King's palace each year.

This year, the festival took on additional significance when, by invitation from the National Department of Environmental Affairs, Wildlands Conservation Trust (Wildlands) managed the planting of 34 000 trees in just 2 days. Each of the 30,000 maidens who attended planted a sapling - led by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and SA President Jacob Zuma. The trees were all grown by 'tree-preneurs' - individuals who support their livelihoods by growing trees and exchanging these trees for food, clothes, bicycles, education support, building materials, JoJo tanks and other goods they need.

The president pointed out at an informal Ministerial consultation on climate change the day before the Reed Dance festival, that "the impact of climate change is already evident globally in the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, coastal erosion and flooding as a result of rising sea levels, increase of the occurrence of certain diseases, loss of biodiversity and economic impacts and an increase in the number of environmental refugees."

South Africans collectively emit over 436 million tons of CO2 per annum, placing us 13th in the global standing of CO2 emitters.

According to Wildlands Strategic Manager, Charmaine Veldman, "to effectively neutralize SA's carbon emissions, we'd need to plant 36 billion trees a year - so obviously we need a more holistic approach to dealing with carbon emissions. It's also vital that we look at ways to adapt to the inevitable changes to the environment," says Veldman. "Nevertheless, each tree will sequester 250kg of CO2 over 20 years - or 12 kg per annum - so every tree counts. A further 4,000 trees were planted once the maidens had finished their planting, bringing the total for the day to some 34,000 trees." Veldman points out that, once planted, it's crucial that the trees survive to sequester as much CO2 as possible. "We plant trees that would naturally occur in the area, which in the case of Kwa-Nongoma included Ankle Thorns, Coral Trees, Wild Plums and Umzimbeets."