"When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope"
– Wangari Maathai
France Joins the Billion Tree Campaign
Paris, 18 January 2007 - From Paris, France, the United Nations Environment Programme launches a second appeal to the international community to join its first global tree planting project Plant for the Planet: the Billion Tree Campaign. Several partners in France (Plan?te Urgence, ADEME - Botanic - Comité 21 - Groupe Yves Rocher - Forestavenir - Fédération des Forestiers Privés de France - France Nature Environnement - Minist?re de l'Agriculture et de la P?che - Minist?re de l'Ecologie et du Développement durable - Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle - Nature & Découvertes - Office National des For?ts - IUCN - UNESCO-MAB) offer their support to the initiative, which will help mitigate climate change and catalyze environmental action around the world.
Governments, civil society organizations, farmers, local authorities, children and youth, the corporate sector and the public at large are encouraged to enter tree planting pledges on the website www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign,with the objective of planting and caring for a total of one billion trees worldwide during 2007.
This people-centred campaign is raising awareness of the interdependence between humankind and the planet’s ecosystems, as well as the linkages between tree planting and climate change mitigation, the restoration of biodiversity, air and soil quality, and food security.
To date, over 157 million tree planting pledges have been recorded, including 5.5 million in France.
UNEP’s call to action will help regenerate the environment, and will also instil social responsibility in the public’s mind, while creating associations between tree planting and positive actions to save the Planet.