Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign is a worldwide tree planting

Treeplanting

Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture, and from the lower cost but slower and less reliable distribution of tree seeds.In silviculture the...

 campaign established by the United Nations Environment Programme

United Nations Environment Programme

The United Nations Environment Programme coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its...

 (UNEP) with the goal of a billion trees being planted during 2007. In May 2007 the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 (U.N.) announced it had already received pledges to plant the planned billion trees.

About the Billion Tree Campaign

Under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, anyone, from individuals and communities, to corporations and nations are asked to enter tree-planting pledges on a special website set up by UNEP. Pledges are verified to prevent fraud. The campaign is the brainchild of Professor Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Muta Mary Jo Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya...

, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

 in 2004 and founder of Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

's Green Belt Movement

Green Belt Movement

The Green Belt Movement is an indigenous grassroots non-governmental organization based in Nairobi, Kenya that takes a holistic approach to development by focusing on environmental conservation, community development and capacity building...

, which has planted more than 30 million trees in 12 African countries since 1977. Professor Maathai underlined the need for the campaign by saying: "People talk too much. We are no longer talking, we are working. The challenge now is to tell the world to go dig holes and plant seedlings. I've no doubt we will achieve our goal." This goal has already been exceeded, with over 11 billion trees pledged and 10 billion planted. The Campaign has only 48 tree planting partners globally and participants in over 170 countries.

Response

The plan has received some negative criticism. Kevin Smith (no relation to the American screenwriter), author of The Carbon Neutral Myth argues that planting a billion trees will do nothing to mitigate global warming

Mitigation of global warming

Climate change mitigation is action to decrease the intensity of radiative forcing in order to reduce the potential effects of global warming. Mitigation is distinguished from adaptation to global warming, which involves acting to tolerate the effects of global warming...

. He released a report stating "You can't just say, 'There's a billion extra trees; it's automatically good for the environment. You have to work out the local context, where you're planting them, and what type of trees you're planting."

World Agroforestry Centre, a global Non-governmental organization, and an international leader in the science and practice of integrating working trees on small farms in rural landscapes, provides scientific support to the Billion Tree Campaign by providing information on what trees to plant, where to plant, and how to plant through its website. http://www.worldagroforestry.org/billiontreecampaign/home.asp

Worldwide response has been mostly positive, however. The nation of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 pledged to plant 200 million trees. A school in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 planted 300 trees as part of the campaign. Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

 pledged 20 million seedling

Seedling

thumb|Monocot and dicot seedlingsA seedling is a young plant sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle , the hypocotyl , and the cotyledons...

s.

Quotes from the Patrons

"We have but a short time to avert damaging and economically debilitating climate change. The solutions are numerous and, as many economists’ say, affordable when compared with the costs of complacency. The goods and services provided by forests are worth billions if not trillions of dollars to the global economy. Forests are natural and economically important ‘sinks’, sequestrating carbon from the atmosphere and locking it away in trunks and branches. Globally, forest cover is at least one-third less than what it once was. It is time to reverse the trends, it is time to act." --Achim Steiner

Achim Steiner

Achim Steiner is a German expert in environmental politics. From 2001 to 2006 he was Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources...

, UNEP Executive Director http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/Statements/exec.asp

"I believe in the symbolic strength of the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign and I sincerely hope it will meet our expectations, far beyond the welfare linked to replanting trees, to benefit future generations." --Albert II, Prince of Monaco

Albert II, Prince of Monaco

Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco is the head of the House of Grimaldi and the ruler of the Principality of Monaco. He is the son of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and the American actress Grace Kelly...

 http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/Statements/Prince.asp

"When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope." --Prof. Wangari, Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/Statements/Wangari.asp

Initiatives supported

• Tree-nation is an internet community dedicated to fighting Climate Change. The website aims to plant 8 million trees in the desert of Niger, the poorest country in the world, in shape of a giant heart that could be visible from space. By selling those trees to companies and people all over the world, tree-nation wants to participate to offset CO2 emissions and more locally to fight against poverty and desertification. Tree-Nation offers the possibility to plant trees on a virtual map. The Virtual Trees have Blogs and Profiles, while the real ones are plant in Niger, fighting climate change and desertification. The project will benefit local populations' welfare, education and farming practices.
• Plant for the Planet is a campaign by engaged young people and pupils of different schools, supporting the aim of the United Nations to plant at least 2007 one billion trees. Thus we want to improve the CO2-balance and create an intensified consciousness for the problem of global warming.

External links

• United Nations Environment Programme
• Billion Tree Campaign
• Billion Tree Campaign in Iran
• World Agroforestry Centre's Science Support Website to The Billion Tree Campaign
• Tree-Nation - The website aims to plant 8 million trees in the desert of Niger, the poorest country in the world, in shape of a giant heart
• Plant for the Planet - Initiative in Germany - Children and youth support the One Billion Tree Campaign of the United Nations
• Young Environmentalists Challenge U.N. Climate Delegates: "Stop Talking. Start Planting" - video report by Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...