« Food and the G8 | Main | Energy as an employer »

One Billion Trees

As I mentioned in my blog on June 11th (Protecting the Rainforests), there is a great buzz at the moment about REDD – Reducing Emissions (of CO2 ) from Deforestation and Degradation. This is great, and getting something sorted on this before the Copenhagen Conference at the end of 2009 is going to be crucial.

But people are weird. Just because policy-makers are focused for the first time on reducing emissions from cutting down existing trees doesn’t mean that taking up emissions from planting new trees has suddenly become completely irrelevant! Or boring even.

OK, so there are indeed a number of dodgy tree-planting schemes being done as carbon offsets, and it is now widely accepted that forestry-based offsets need to be treated with a great deal of caution. But that absolutely doesn’t mean that all tree-planting has ceased to be important.

I was powerfully reminded of this last week when the official report of the Billion Tree Campaign dropped through my letterbox. If anyone reading this piece RIGHT NOW is feeling a little bit depressed, then RIGHT NOW you should check this out http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign.

It’s an astonishing story. Back in 2005, the wonderful Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize (the first environmentalist ever to win) started campaigning around the idea of planting a billion trees. This was taken up by UNEP and a constellation of organisations all around the world, and duly launched in November 2006. I must say, I did wonder at the ambition level – that’s one hell of a lot of people out there planting one hell of a lot of trees.

I needn’t have worried. Since the launch, not just one billion, not just one and half billion, but more than two billion trees have been planted!

The overall impact of this must be extraordinary – in terms of biodiversity, soil protection, watershed management, sustainable livelihoods and so on. And that doesn’t even include the CO2 benefits: depending on the location and size of its trees, one hectare of forest can absorb approximately six tonnes of CO2 a year.

The Report is stuffed full of brilliant case studies, drawn from all over the world, involving every sector and every conceivable kind of organisation – particularly young people.

You can just feel the spirit of Wangari Maathai behind all of this. She was over in the UK a month ago to present the Awards of the annual Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy – itself an amazing organisation (of which – to declare an interest – I’m a Trustee) with its own amazing portfolio of inspirational award winners – this year from Ethiopia, Tanzania, India, Uganda, Brazil and China, as well as Mid Wales, Cornwall, Sussex, Yorkshire, Ayrshire and Oxford!

So if the Billion Trees haven’t done it for you, then check them out too at www.ashdenawards.org

“No one can attend an event like the Ashden Awards and fail to be inspired……these Awards have told us how to illuminate the path to a sustainable future together”

(Al Gore)


Posted by Jonathon Porritt on July 17, 2008 10:45 AM |

Comments (2)

Of those 1 billion new trees, 1 million to be planted in Haiti, the island country where less than 1 percent of its forest remains.

In an effort to solve the issues of deforestation in Haiti, which also contributes to climate change and global warming, non-profit organization Lambi Fund of Haiti and Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai of the Green Belt Movement is partnering to plant 1 million trees over three years on an island.

Haiti’s contribution to the world includes being the first black republic in the world (and the first country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery completely) and being the native land of Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable who is credited and recognized as being the founder of Chicago. Despite its rich history and vibrant Haitian art, deforestation and economical and political oppression severely threatens the country. Described by one recent U.N. report as “one of the most degraded countries in the world” less than one percent of Haiti’s forests remain as a result of deforestation, leaving many to call Haiti a Caribbean desert. The critical issue of deforestation has caused periodic flooding most recently from 2004’s tropical storm Jeanne, which left over 3,000 Haitians dead in floods and mudslides. Other environmental issues such as climate change, global warming, and soil erosion not only threatens Haiti but the world as a whole. Recognizing this pressing global issue, Lambi Fund of Haiti and the Green Belt Movement has created a partnership.

Posted by Fabiola | July 20, 2008 4:04 AM

And let's not forget the Woodland Trust plan to (re-)plant native British trees to restore the cover of an ancient woodland near St Albans...

But really, we can plant all the trees we want, whilst ignoring other fundamental threats to biodiversity and (in with the cliche) life itself. All these efforts need to be co-ordinated, to be part of a greater plan that addresses both the established and emerging threats - pollution, climate change, over-industrialisation et al. And the plan needs to be global... Oh dear, just lost the plot.

Posted by Ironspider | July 29, 2008 2:18 PM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)





TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.jonathonporritt.com/jpblog/mt-tb.cgi/66

Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]