Climate change combat mission: UN agency plants 3 bn trees
More than three billion trees have been planted worldwide under the United Nations programme to fight climate change through reforestation and the world body has set a new goal of seven billion plantations.world Updated: Mar 31, 2009 11:26 IST
More than three billion trees have been planted worldwide under the United Nations programme to fight climate change through reforestation and the world body has set a new goal of seven billion plantations.The original goal was for planting one billion trees.
The campaign was launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Centre in 2006 as a response not only to global warming threat but also to sustainability challenges from water supplies to biodiversity loss.Trees and forests play a vital role in regulating the climate since they absorb carbon dioxide. Deforestation, in turn, accounts for over 20 per cent of the carbon dioxide humans generate, rivalling the emissions from other sources.With slightly over 700 million trees planted to date, Turkey now attains second position in the list of top 10 countries in the Campaign's roll of honour. The leading nation remains Ethiopia with 725 million trees planted, UNEP said.
Mexico, with 472,404,266 trees planted to date, Kenya with 139,893,668 and Cuba with 137,476,771 round out the top five in the sylvan effort.In total, 3,071,704,993 trees have been planted around the world. So far, another 1,578,796,459 trees have been pledged and have yet to be planted.
UNEP is now making an appeal to UN peacekeeping missions and the armed forces of the world to join the campaign.