Thoughts...

There seems to be two distinctive views, one of which is that some people feel that trees are so beautiful and shouldn't be cut down due to its heritage and the other of agreement with the replacement of the pine trees to fynbos. Both groups seem to understand their opposition’s opinion but it seems that before it was known that the exotic plants were consuming a lot of our precious water, nobody had a problem with them. 

SANpark (The South African National Park) claimed to the media and all the newspapers that all the pine trees are “alien” and this statement is not believed to be true by many scientists and plant experts. By using the word “alien” and “invasive” makes it seem that the trees are negative and should not be in the Cape. It makes readers immediately feel against the trees by associating the trees as something bad. Most of the people that are for the replacement of pine trees to fynbos have based their opinion and constructed their argument on what SANpark has insinuated.  Although the trees are said to be consuming lots of water, it is believed that the reason why they need so much water is because they shield the land and therefore as a result of this shielding, the trees leaves and branches need more water. If there were not any protection from the harmful sun rays then the ground would turn into a desert and consume all the water anyways. This is just an excuse to place more fynbos, which does not need much water to survive, in the area and to maintain water for the Cape. (Cool Forest. 2010)

Although this is a very different situation to that of mass deforestation, the fact of cutting down trees to benefit groups that prefer fynbos seems absurd. Trees are not only beautiful to look at, but they are a part of us as humans. They provide us with oxygen that makes us live and this is how we repay them. Trees should be cared for as if they were an extended organ of our body that is helping us survive. Fynbos is not a tree and it won’t provide as much oxygen that the pine trees give. It seems suicidal to cut down trees and replace them with shrubs. Whilst it is claimed that the pine trees are taking too much of our water, it would serve the government, relevant groups and activists involved in this issue well to provide actual proof on this matter instead of an assumption that is not backed up properly. 

(Buckham. 2012)

(What-to-do-in-cape-town. 2012)