250,000,000 trees
Who said Mexico isn’t contributing to the United Nations?
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a major worldwide tree planting campaign. Under the Billion Tree Campaign, people, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments are encouraged to enter tree planting pledges online with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007.
Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, declared that his country would plant 250 million trees in 2007. The Mexican government launched the ProÁrbol (Pro Tree) Campaign which aims to reach one fourth of the goal set by the UNEP campaign.
The Mexican government will invest over six billion pesos in 2007 with funds assigned to support nearly 400,000 inhabitants in ejidos and communities. The Pro-Tree Program will be used to recover areas amd recharge the aquifers. It will focus on four main areas: first, conservation and restoration, second, planning and forest organization, third, production and productivity, and fourth, to produce infrastructure, means of communication, country roads and all the other things required to contribute to forestry.
President Calderón explained that his government had signed an agreement with the United Nations, included in the Millennium Development Goals, pledging to incorporate the principles of sustainable development into national policies and programs and to reduce the loss of environmental resources.
Many thank for sourcing the Planeta.com article. This is very big news. This could be the sexenio de árbol in Mexico. We will be keeping track of developments and launching a new collaborative photo gallery showing work in progress.