JOIN THE BILLION TREE CAMPAIGN: PLANT FOR THE PLANET
A world-wide effort
United Plant Savers is SO excited to be joining what we call “our kind of revolution”! We’ve been accused of being ‘tree-huggers’ for years, and it’s finally come into fashion.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is launching a major worldwide tree planting campaign. Under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, people, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments will be encouraged to enter tree planting pledges on their website (www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign) with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007.
Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 2004 and founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 30 million trees in 12 African countries since 1977, inspired the idea for the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign. When a corporate group in the United States told Professor Maathai it was planning to plant a million trees, her response was: “That’s great, but what we really need is to plant a billion trees.”
Recognizing that there are many tree planting schemes around the world, UNEP proposes to federate these efforts in both rural and urban areas. People and entities – individuals, children and youth groups, schools, community groups, non-governmental organizations, farmers, private sector organizations, local authorities and national governments – are encouraged to enter pledges on the online form. Each pledge can be anything from a single tree to 10 million trees.
UpS hopes that you will go to the website and make a pledge to plant one tree or many in your name using United Plant savers as your organization. We will be pledging tree plantings on our Ohio Sanctuary and we hope that you will join this planetary effort in 2007. We encourage you to plant native medicinal trees from our At-Risk and To-Watch list if possible. If you are unsure what will grow in your zone, you can go to the National Arbor Day Foundation website, type in your zip code, determine your zone and choose medicinal trees to plant. If you have difficulty finding seedlings or seeds, consult your recently published Nursery Directory (sent to all current UpS members), or call UpS for plant nursery references in your area.
The Billion Tree Campaign website has excellent and inspiring information about trees, how to plant a tree, the state of trees on our planet and other good information. This is an excellent project to do with children, community groups or for HerbDay 2007 (October 13, 2007). Commit to Action - Join the Billion Tree Campaign!
Coming soon . . . a list of medicinal tree species!