UNEP Launches Campaign to Plant a Billion Trees

Source: UN News Service
Launched at UN Climate Change Conference
Nairobi, 8 November 2006

Wangari Maathai, Prince of Monaco and Agroforestry Experts Back Global Down-to-Earth Action to Combat Climate Change

The vital importance of voluntary collective action in the fight against climate change is spotlighted today with the launch of a new campaign to plant a billion trees.

The Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), will encourage all sectors of society—from the concerned citizen to the philanthropic corporation– to take small but practical steps to combat what is probably the key challenge of the 21st century.

The campaign, backed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Green Belt Movement activist Professor Wangari Maathai, His Serene Highness Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco and the World Agroforestry Centre-ICRAF, was unveiled at the annual climate change convention conference taking place in Nairobi.

Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP said: “Intergovernmental talks on addressing climate change can often be difficult, protracted and sometimes frustrating, especially for those looking on but we cannot and must not lose heart”.

“Meanwhile, action does not need to be confined to the corridors of the negotiation halls. The campaign, which aims to plant a minimum of one billion trees in 2007, offers a direct and straight forward path down which all sectors of society can step to contribute to meeting the climate change challenge,” he added.

“In re-creating lost forests and developing new ones, we can also address other concerns including loss of biodiversity, improving water availability, stemming desertification and reducing erosion,” said Mr Steiner.

Professor Maathai said: “When we are planting trees sometimes people will say to me, ‘I don’t want to plant this tree, because it will not grow fast enough’. I have to keep reminding them that the trees they are cutting today were not planted by them, but by those who came before. So they must plant the trees that will benefit communities in the future.”

Mr Steiner added: “The Billion Tree Campaign is but an acorn, but it can also be practically and symbolically a significant expression of our common determination to make a difference in developing and developed countries alike.”

“We have but a short time to avert serious climate change. We need action. We need to plant trees alongside other concrete community-minded actions and in doing so, send a signal to the corridors of political power across the globe that the watching and waiting is over — that countering climate change can take root via one billion small but significant acts in our gardens, parks, countryside and rural areas,” said Mr Steiner.

Other actions include people driving less, switching off lights in empty rooms and turning off electrical appliances rather than leaving them on standby. If everyone in the United Kingdom switched off rather than left TV sets and other appliances on standby it would save enough electricity to power close to three million homes for a year, according to some estimates.

The idea for Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign was inspired by Professor Maathai who, along with the Prince, is co-patron of the new initiative.

When a corporate group in the United States told Professor Maathai it was planning to plant a million trees, her response was: “That’s great, but what we really need is to plant a billion trees.”

His Serene Highness Albert II, said: “I am particularly honoured to be associated with the founder, Professor Wangari Maathai, whose involvement in the process of reforestation has been, and continues to be, inspirational. To plant a tree for future generations is a simple gesture, yet a strong symbol of sustainable development.”

Under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, people and entities from around the world are encouraged to enter pledges on the Billion Tree Campaign website.

The campaign is open to all – individuals, children and youth groups, schools, community groups, non-governmental organizations, farmers, private sector organizations, local authorities, and national governments. Each pledge can be anything from a single tree to 10 million trees.

The Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign encourages the planting of indigenous trees and trees that are appropriate to the local environment, with mixtures of species preferred over other options.

The campaign identifies four key areas for planting: degraded natural forests and wilderness areas; farms and rural landscapes; sustainably managed plantations; and urban environments but it can also begin with a single tree in a back garden.

Advice on tree planting will be made available via the website, as well as information about reforestation and other tree-related issues, including links to appropriate partner organizations best equipped to give locally tailored advice, such as the World Agroforestry Centre-ICRAF.

Dennis Garrity, ICRAF Director General said: “the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign is a superb initiative by UNEP to link people, trees and the environment. Planting trees is great, although using appropriate scientific knowledge to plant the right tree in the right place is even greater. The 500 million smallholder farmers in the tropics stand to benefit tremendously from the greater recognition, appreciation and promotion of the right trees in the right places, so that such trees may transform both lives and landscapes.

The responsibility for tree planting will lie with the person or organization making the pledge via the campaign website. All contributing participants to the Billion Tree Campaign will receive a certificate of involvement.

They will be encouraged to follow up via the website so UNEP can verify that the trees have survived, in partnership with recognized certification mechanisms. The website will record the ongoing tally of pledges, and also publish photos and accounts from registered campaign members of what they have achieved.

Notes to Editors

For information about the Billion Tree Campaign and how to join, please see Billion Tree Campaign website.

Details of the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 2), in conjunction with the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 12), taking place in Nairobi from 6 to 17 November 2006, can be found at www.unfccc.int

UNEP climate change resources are at the UN website.

For More Information Please Contact Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson, Office of the Executive Director, on Tel: +254 20 762 3084; Mobile: +254 733 632 755, E-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org, or Elisabeth Waechter, Associate Media Officer, on Tel: +254 20 7623088, Mobile: 0720-173 968; E-mail: Elisabeth.waechter@unep.org