The tree planting in England brings to a close a landmark year in which the Billion Tree Campaign reached and overtook its new goal to see 7 billion trees planted around the world, one for each person on the planet.
Some 7.4 billion trees have now been planted on every continent. The campaign's success is a result of the collective participation of people from of all walks of life and from every corner of the planet - from scouts to presidents and from schoolchildren to city dwellers and CEOs.
Another highlight of 2009 was the designation of BTC patron Wangari Maathai as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on the environment and climate change. Pr Maathai was designated in her new function during the Copenhagen climate talks in December.
The billion tree campaign is a global tree planting initiative that was launched in November 2006 at the climate change conference held in Nairobi. Its initial goal was to catalyze the pledging and the planting of one billion trees every year as a way of giving public expression to the challenges of climate change and also forest and ecosystem degradation.
In May 2008, UNEP raised its target to seven billion trees - about one tree per person in time for the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen this December. This target was reached and surpassed in September 2009, after the Chinese government officially joined the campaign.
The leading planting countries include the People's Republic of China, Ethiopia, Turkey, Mexico, Kenya, Cuba, and Indonesia.
more: http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/
