UN: More Than 1 Billion Trees Planted In 2007
The world has surpassed a UN goal of planting 1 billion (milliard) trees in 2007 to help slow climate change, led by huge forestry projects in Ethiopia and Mexico, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) claimed Wednesday.
UNEP said Ethiopia appeared to be the runaway leader with 700 million trees planted in a national reforestation drive. Only 3 percent of Ethiopia is now forested, down from 40 percent a century ago.
Other top planters were Mexico with 217 million trees, Turkey 150 million, Kenya 100 million, Cuba 96.5 million, Rwanda 50 million, South Korea 43 million, Tunisia 21 million, Morocco 20 million, Burma 20 million and Brazil 16 million, UNEP said.
UNEP says it checks planting pledges, which now cover 1,5 billion trees, to see if they sound credible but does not ensure all are planted. It said the totals were still being collated.
– An initiative to catalyze the pledging and the planting of one billion trees has achieved and indeed surpassed its mark. It is a further sign of the breathtaking momentum witnessed this year on the challenge for this generation – climate change, UNEP Chief Achim Steiner noted.
Although the figure could not be verified, it sends a powerful message ahead of the December 3-14 meeting in Bali of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, stressed he.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
