UNEP Billion Tree Campaign to Grow into Seven Billion Tree Campaign
May 18th, 2008
Last year we wrote a few times encouraging URI participation in the UNEP billion trees campaign (1, 2). We’re not exactly sure about URI participation, but we do know that the program has been successful — with more than 2 billion trees planted! Thus UNEP is now expanding the program and its goal to 7 billion trees. Read on for more information.
NAIROBI/NEW YORK, 13 May 2008 – A unique worldwide tree planting initiative, aimed at empowering citizens to corporations and people up to presidents to embrace the climate change challenge, has now set its sights on planting 7 billion trees.
It follows the news, also announced today, that the Billion Tree Campaign has in just 18 months catalysed the planting of 2 billion trees, double its original target.
The campaign, spearheaded by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), was unveiled in 2006 as one response to the threat but also to the opportunities of global warming, as well as to the wider sustainability challenges — from water supplies to biodiversity loss.
To date the initiative, which is under the patronage of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Kenyan Green Belt Movement founder Professor Wangari Maathai and His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, has broken every target set and has catalysed tree planting in close to 155 countries.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said today: “When the Billion Tree Campaign was launched at the UN Climate Change Convention meeting in Nairobi in November 2006, no one could have imagined it could have flowered so fast and so far. But it has given expression to the frustrations but also the hopes of millions of people around the world”.
“Having exceeded every target that has been set for the campaign, we are now calling on individuals, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and Governments to evolve this initiative onto a new and even higher level by the crucial Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in late 2009”, he said.
“In 2006 we wondered if a billion-tree target was too ambitious; it was not. The goal of 2 billion trees has also proven to be an underestimate. The goal of planting 7 billion trees – equivalent to just over a tree per person alive on the planet —must therefore also be do-able given the campaign’s extraordinary track record and the self-evident worldwide support”, he added.
The Billion Tree Campaign has become a practical expression of private and public concern over global warming. Heads of State including the Presidents of Indonesia, Maldives, Mexico, Turkey and Turkmenistan as well as businesses; cities; faith, youth and community groups have enthusiastically taken part. Individuals have accounted for over half of all participants.
- In a single day in Uttar Pradesh, India, 10.5 million trees were planted.
- 35 million young people in Turkey have been mobilized to plant trees.
- 500,000 schoolchildren in sub-Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom have become engaged.
It has also attracted the support of multilateral organizations including the Convention on Biological Diversity, whose new Green Wave initiative was launched in advance of its important conference being held in Bonn, Germany later this month, supports the Billion, now Seven Billion, Tree Campaign.
Tree planting remains one of the most cost-effective ways to address climate change. Trees and forests play a vital role in regulating the climate since they absorb carbon dioxide – containing an estimated 50% more carbon than the atmosphere. Deforestation, in turn, accounts for over 20% of the carbon dioxide humans generate, rivaling the emissions from other sources.
Trees also play a crucial role in providing a range of products and services to rural and urban populations, including food, timber, fiber, medicines and energy as well as soil fertility, water and biodiversity conservation.
“The Billion Tree Campaign has not only helped to mobilize millions of people to respond to the challenges of climate change, it has also opened the door, especially for the rural poor, to benefit from the valuable products and services the trees provide”, said Dennis Garrity, Director-General of the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre. “Smallholder farmers could also benefit from the rapidly growing global carbon market by planting and nurturing trees”, he said.