Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai on Wednesday launched a massive drive aimed at curbing global warming and related environmental damage by planting a billion new trees by the end of next year.
On the sidelines of a key United Nations climate-change conference in Nairobi, Maathai announced the start in January of the Billion Tree Campaign to combat rampant deforestation, reverse desertification and reduce soil erosion.
Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the Greenbelt Movement, which she founded to promote human rights and sustainable development by planting trees first in her native Kenya, then throughout Africa and the world.
”In the year 2007 we shall target over a billion trees,” said Maathai, the first African woman honoured by the Nobel committee, noting that trees provide natural protection against the effects of climate change.
”We want to commit ourselves to action and we want to call the whole world to participate in this action,” she said, calling on the people around the world to get their hands dirty while diplomats haggle over treaties.
”We know the signs and we know the data … but what is really important even long after this conference is what we do,” Maathai said. ”That is why this campaign is so important.”
Trees are key to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere generated by the use of fossil fuels and every year an average tree converts 12kg of the gas into enough oxygen for a family of four per year, according to the UN.
But, replacing trees lost by deforestation over the past decade will require planting an area the size of Peru, a task equivalent to planting 14-billion trees every year for a decade, the UN says.
Although trees may not be able to absorb all of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for raising global temperatures, they can also restore lost water-catchment areas and reduce erosion, officials say.
The Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (Unep), which is hosting the conference, said the initiative, sponsored by Maathai and Prince Albert of Monaco, is crucial to citizen participation in fighting climate change.
”Action does not need to be confined to the corridors of the negotiation halls,” said Unep chief Achim Steiner. ”The Billion Tree Campaign is but an acorn, but it can also be practically and symbolically a significant expression of our common determination to make a difference in developing and developed countries alike.”
The Billion Tree Campaign not only encourages groups to plant trees in damaged forests, parks and public areas but also wants individuals to place them in private gardens. It also seeks pledges of money, saplings and seeds. — Sapa-AFP