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 catalyzed tree planting in close to 155 countries.
Achim Steiner, UN
Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said "When the
Billion Tree Campaign was launched at the Climate Convention meeting in
Nairobi in 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 two billion
trees has also proven to be an underestimate. The goal of planting seven
billion trees is 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, the 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.
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In a single day in Uttar
Pradesh, India, 10.5 million trees were planted.
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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, and which
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.
The two billionth tree was put
into the ground as part of an agroforestry project carried out by the UN's
World Food Programme (WFP). It now planted 60 million trees in 35 countries
to improve food security. This news comes as the United Nations calls for
resolute action to end the global food crisis which affects an estimated 73
million people in 80 countries around the world.
In announcing the agency's
contribution to the Billion Tree Campaign, WFP Executive Director Josette
Sheeran said: "WFP is concerned about rising costs of food and fuel which
inevitably hit the 'bottom billion' hardest. More people will require WFP
assistance at a time when WFP's current programmes are reaching fewer due to
the critical funding gap created by rising costs."
In terms of geographic
distribution, Africa is the leading region with over half of all tree
plantings. Regional and national governments organized the most massive
plantings, with Ethiopia leading the count at 700 million, followed by
Turkey (400 million), Mexico (250 million), and Kenya (100 million).
The campaign has also generated
significant appeal in post-conflict and post-disaster environments. In
acting upon the words of the campaign's patron Wangari Maathai "when we
plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope," communities in
Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Liberia and Somalia contributed to
the global effort with over 2 million trees.
Furthermore, mangrove plantings
were organized by Plančte Urgence in Banda Aceh and other Indonesian
provinces recovering from the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, while
Replant New Orleans initiative in the United States sponsored a planting of
fruit-bearing trees to breathe new life into a community struggling in the
aftermath of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.
The private sector pitched in
as well, accounting for almost 6% of all trees planted. Multinational
corporations including Bayer, Toyota, Yves Rocher, Accor Group of Hotels and
Tesco Lotus supported the campaign, as did hundreds of medium and
small-sized enterprises the world over.
The Billion Tree Campaign has
further highlighted the cultural and spiritual dimension of trees with
groups as diverse as the International Olympic Committee, the World Scouting
Movement, SOS Sahel Initiative or yet "Geiko and Maiko for Forests" ?
Japanese geishas from the hometown of the Kyoto Protocol ? actively
participating in the initiative.
"The Billion Tree Campaign is
UNEP's call to the nearly 7 billion people sharing our planet today to take
simple, positive steps to protect our climate. It is a defining issue of our
era that can only be tackled through individual and collective action. I am
convinced that the new target will be met ? one tree at a time," concluded
Executive Director Steiner.
Relevant
Websites
The Billion Tree Campaign:
www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign &
http://www.worldagroforestry.org/billiontreecampaign/
The United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):
http://unfccc.int
The Copenhagen 2009 Climate
Change Conference:
www.cop15.dk/en/
The Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD):
http://www.cbd.int/
The CBD's Green Wave:
http://greenwave.cbd.int/
The CBD's COP 9 website:
www.cbd.int/cop9/
The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF):
www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/
The World Food Programme (WFP):
www.wfp.org/
The Nature Conservancy:
www.nature.org/
UNEP's climate change:
www.unep.org/themes/climatechange/
