The world's second
most populous country plants for the planet
Nairobi 25 February
2010- The Secretary of the Ministry of Environment
and Forests, Mr. Vijay Sharma, announced
today that India has joined the United Nations
Environment Programme's Plant for the Planet:
Billion Tree Campaign (BTC) by planting
two billion trees since 2007, bringing the
international campaign's total to date to
over 10 billion planted trees worldwide.
India is one of Asia's
fastest growing economies and is among the
largest consumers of wood products. In addition,
a large part of its population continues
to depend on land, putting pressure on forests,
especially in densely populated areas where
people are cultivating on marginal lands.
Overgrazing is also contributing towards
desertification.
While the socio-economic
pressures on the country's forests are tremendous,
the government is clearly anxious to find
solutions. Almost one third of the planted
forests in Asia, mostly in China and India,
have served the purpose of environmental
protection. India has instituted a tree
planting system to combat land degradation
and desertification, including windbreaks
and shelterbelts to protect agricultural
land.
India has also launched
a compensation afforestation programme under
which any diversion of public forests for
non-forestry purposes is compensated through
afforestation in degraded or non-forested
land. The funds received as compensation
are used to improve forest management, protection
of forests and of watershed areas. A government
authority has been created specifically
to administer this programme.
Forestry forms the second
largest land use in India and the government
actively monitors the growth of the trees.
At the macro level it is done by the Forest
Survey of India every two years. In general,
indigenous species are planted in the forested
area through the involvement of local people.
Tree planting on public lands is also nationally
monitored by the Ministry of Statistics
and Programme Implementation.
The private sector is
also engaged with tree planting. As part
of the Green Commonwealth Games 2010 in
Delhi, organizers have introduced an initiative
to expand the forest coverage in the city.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said:
"It is wonderful to have India join
a campaign that will give so much in terms
of trees and the future of the planet. In
September we thought hitting seven billion
trees was an enormous achievement but with
this latest planting by India we have now
reached over 10 billion in the Billion Tree
Campaign that has galvanized governments
and people around the world. It is this
kind of solidarity that will make a difference
for moving economies towards a low carbon
and sustainable world."
Since its launching
in late 2006, hundreds of millions of people
ranging from scouts to presidents and from
schoolchildren to city dwellers and corporate
heads have been rolling up their sleeves
and getting their hands dirty for the environment
through planting a tree as part of Billion
Tree Campaign.
Citizens from 170 countries
have joined the Billion Tree Campaign with
China joining last September. The country
planted 6.1 billion trees, of which 2.6
billion have been contributed to the campaign.
A number of other countries
around the world have planted impressive
numbers of trees since the campaign was
launched. Countries that have planted more
than a hundred million trees span from Ethiopia
(with 1.4 billion trees) and Turkey (711
million trees) to Mexico (with 537 million
trees) and other countries within this range
including Kenya, Cuba, and Indonesia.
The Billion Tree Campaign
was launched jointly with the World Agroforestry
Centre during the UN climate convention
meeting in November 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya,
under the patronage of Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate and Founder of the Green Belt Movement
Professor Wangari Maathai and His Serene
Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The initial goal of
the campaign was to catalyze the pledging
and the planting of one billion trees as
a way of giving public expression to the
challenges of climate change and also forest
and ecosystem degradation.
Since then the campaign
has repeatedly, and thanks to the mobilization
of communities on all continents, more than
surpassed its aims evolving into a true
'People's Campaign' , with more than half
(52 percent) of participants being private
individuals.
Furthermore, tree planting
has become both an inter-faith and an inter-generational
activity, with the trees symbolizing connections
between children and parents and bringing
together people from different religious
backgrounds, often in the name of peace.
Highlights of the Billion
Tree Campaign
In the past months more
groups have joined the campaign including
the United Nations World Food Programme
with 153 million trees planted for food
security in areas where it delivers food
aid in developing countries.
In addition to bringing
governments to take concrete action to reforest
their lands, the Billion Tree Campaign has
succeeded in catalyzing tree planting by
people from all walks of society, bringing
together creative, original and pioneering
initiatives around the world.
To name a few, the Replant
New Orleans Initiative sponsored a planting
of fruit trees to help breathe new life
into a community struggling with the aftermath
of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina; the Greening
Soweto Campaign is transforming dustbowls
into treed lanes in Soweto by capitalizing
on South Africa's preparations for the 2010
FIFA World Cup; and 132 children in 56 countries
have pledged to plant a total of one million
trees as part of the 'Stop talking, Start
planting' campaign, which was started by
a twelve-year-old environmentalist, Felix
Finkbeiner, of Germany.
In addition, the campaign
has mobilized groups and individuals in
post-conflict areas around the world, bringing
the seeds of hope to communities in Afghanistan,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Somalia among others.
The Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
has planted 29 million trees in and around
refugee camps around the globe, helping
to plant hundreds of thousands of acres
of trees in Asia and Africa since the 11000s.
The United Nations Departments
of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and Field
Support (DFS) have also participated in
the campaign, with thirteen peacekeeping
missions having pledged 117,848 trees. Of
this number 33,184 trees have already taken
root across various countries hosting peacekeeping
missions.
The campaign, which
encouraged the planting of indigenous trees
appropriate to the local environments, has
not only witnessed the participation and
enthusiasm of UN staff, but also of the
local communities in the different areas
of operation.
The private sector has
become a key player in the global campaign,
accounting for almost 15 percent of all
the trees planted. Multinationals, including
ACCOR, Bayer, Toyota, Coca-Cola East and
Central Africa and Yves Rocher have been
active tree planters, along with hundreds
of small and medium-sized companies from
all over the world. Green companies such
as Tree-Nation, Kinomé-Trees for
Life have based their operations on tree
planting in the tropics.
The campaign's universal
appeal is clear from the echo given on social
networking sites, with thousands of blogs
adopting the cause from the start of the
campaign.
Proving true to its
motto that 'Every tree counts, and we count
every tree', the Billion Tree Campaign's
phenomenal success demonstrates the readiness
of citizens all over the world to work in
unison to protect our climate and collective
home.
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Head
of Media
Anne-France White, UNEP Media
Mia Turner, UNEP Media
