PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME ON NEW TREE CAMPAIGN

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today the launch of a new challenge -- planting 7 billion trees, one for every citizen on the planet, before the start of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, next year.

Announcing the launch at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said the target was achievable because the project enjoyed support from Governments, individuals and the corporate sector.  The campaign would trigger thinking inside organizations, businesses, local councils and Government departments about how to transform the issue of climate change from the abstract into something very practical.

He recalled that, during the 2006 Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, UNEP had launched the “Billion Tree Campaign”.  Inspired by Wangari Maathai, founder of the Kenyan Green Belt Movement, and sponsored by Prince Albert II of Monaco, the Campaign had aimed to plant a billion trees a year in order to send a message that citizens, feeling left out of Government negotiations, could do something about climate change.  In an overwhelming response to that campaign, 1 billion trees had been planted within eight months, and the 2-billion mark had been passed in just 18 months, according to reports called into UNEP.

Mr. Steiner later presented two UNEP Certificates of Global Leadership to Dana A. Kartakusuma, Assistant Minister for Environment of Indonesia, in recognition of that country’s role in the “Billion Tree Campaign”.  One certificate recognized the role of Ani Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s First Lady, who had been instrumental in the planting of 20 million trees, and the second honoured the Ministry of Forestry, which had committed itself to planting 76 million trees last year.

Mr. Kartakusuma said that, over the last three years, his country had suffered floods and landslides caused by deforestation in upper watershed areas.  The flooding had not only caused environmental degradation, but also economic loss, from which everybody had suffered.  There was, therefore, a strong awareness at the highest levels of the importance of rehabilitating forests in order to improve water retention, conserve water and prevent landslides and floods.

He said the Ministries of Forestry and Environment had collaborated with civil society organizations and celebrities to launch a big campaign for the reforestation.  Hopefully, the recognition by UNEP would provide a further incentive for greater efforts in the replanting of trees.  The Government had also launched a campaign -- “Towards a Green Indonesia” -- to involve district-level local authorities in the promotion of tree-planting.

Asked whether the planting of trees would not compete with the growing of food in a situation of scarce agricultural lands, Mr. Steiner replied that trees did not compete with crops; on the contrary, they offered protection from wind, among other things, enhanced soil fertility and provided additional income for the farmer.  Most of all, they helped with water retention in watershed areas.  Trees, in short, enhanced agricultural productivity.

It was not necessary to police people to whether the reported number of trees had indeed been planted, he said in response to another question.  UNEP’s idea was to be a platform for people who wished to do something about climate change but felt isolated.  Planting a tree was a straightforward idea.  However, the Programme did ask people to report back and send pictures of the trees they planted.

In response a question about the campaign’s impact, he said that 7 billion trees did not make a dent in the face of global deforestation, but they did make dents in local deforestations.  As a result of the campaign, people became aware of the problem and started to protect their forests.  Every tree planted mobilized people who said “enough is enough”.

Asked to comment on the fact that in the “top 10” list of tree-planting nations Myanmar was the only country where the number of Government-planted trees equalled the total number, Mr. Steiner said that in numerical terms of pledges, citizens were by far the larger number.  In actual trees pledged, Governments were, surprisingly, the most significant contributors.  However, the private sector had also made contributions and pledges, some of which was public relations and branding, and some genuine philanthropy.

Responding to a question about a remark he had made regarding speculators distorting the food market, he said one of the multiple causes for the food crisis was that speculators, anticipating a food shortage next year, had driven up current prices.  That had caused a short-term crisis that had pushed people out of the food market.  Also, following the crisis in subprime lending, financial markets had looked to other products to invest in.  While the agricultural commodity sector was an attractive one for investors, the food crisis had been caused by a confluence of many different factors, including biofuels, climate change and speculators.  The Secretary-General’s initiative to form a task force was aimed at understanding how to address the different drivers while acting to help those who could no longer afford to buy food.

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For information media • not an official record