Nairobi,
22 July 2009 - Commanding Officer, Lieutenant
Colonel Um Bello, heads up the Alpha Company
of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
(DPKO) which is working in the region of
Kakata in western Liberia. On 8 July 2009,
Um Bello led his troops in a new exercise:
planting trees to contribute to the UNEP-led
Billion Tree campaign.
"The war against
global warming is both an individual and
collective responsibility," Um Bello
told the UN soldiers and dignitaries who
had come to the launching of the tree planting
drive. "As a contingent, we have resolved
to join efforts with the international community;
well-meaning organizations and individuals
to ensure that the war is fought, won and
our planet Earth is saved," he added
as his troops planted 50 trees and pledged
to plant another 700 before the end of the
year.
Trees are critical in
the fight against climate change. The loss
of natural forests around the world is contributing
more to global emissions each year than
the transport sector. Trees, which absorb
carbon dioxide and store nearly 300 Gigatonnes
of carbon in their biomass alone, are a
crucial factor in the global environmental
battle. They help conserve soil and water,
control avalanches, prevent desertification,
protect coastal areas and they house up
to 90 percent of known terrestrial species.
The Alpha Company will
have planted a total of 1,000 trees by December
2009, 300 of which they will plant when
they return to the base camp in the Sobi
barracks in Kwara State in Nigeria. "Tree
planting has been identified as one of the
weapons with which we can combat global
warming and other forms of environmental
degradation. It is therefore, against this
backdrop, that we are gathered here today
to ensure that trees are planted in their
millions as a solution to global warming,"
said Lieutenant Colonel Um Bello.
"The care and protection
of our environment is everybody's concern,"
stressed Um Bello.
Working under UNEP's
worldwide Plant for the Planet: Billion
Tree Campaign, which aims to plant seven
billion trees or one for every member of
the human race by December 2009, DPKO has
already planted some 28,000 trees and pledged
for 33,000 more in 11 missions that include
Timor Leste, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Côte d'Ivoire, Darfur, Sudan, Western
Sahara, Haiti, Lebanon and Liberia.
To date, over four billion
trees have been planted and 169 countries
have participated in the campaign.
"On this memorable
day, we have all become a part of history,"
Um Bello told the DPKO forces. "Let
us rise to the call of UNEP and all plant
a tree today for the sustainability of our
environment," he added.
Meanwhile, as part of
its efforts to enhance and develop the physical
environment in Darfur, United Nations-African
Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has embarked
on a tree planting exercise at its headquarters
in El Fasher. An initial 50 seedlings were
planted on Tuesday and it is expected that
the project will culminate in December when
the goal of 1,000 trees will be planted
in all UNAMID compounds.
The exercise is being
undertaken following a recommendation by
the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) on
engaging ways to address the impact of the
conflict in Darfur on the environment.
In a call to further
global action, UNEP is inviting everyone
from civil society to the business community
to Governments to plant trees as part of
the UNite to Combat Climate Change initiative,
and register their commitments to plant
on the campaign's website: www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign
Top 10 tree-planting
countries are the following:
Ethiopia 1.4 Billion
Turkey 707 Million
Mexico 537 Million
People's Republic of China 236 Million
Kenya 143 Million
Cuba 137 Million
Indonesia 100 Million
India 88 Million
Republic of Korea 50 Million
Rwanda 50 Million
