Addressing Climate Change: The Billion Trees Campaign

That's the goal at the heart of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Billion Tree Campaign, a global initiative empowering citizens and corporations to embrace the climate change challenge. The campaign was originally inspired by Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 30 million trees in Africa.

When a corporate group in the United States told Professor Maathai they were planting a million trees, she said, "that's great, but what we really need to plant is a billion trees!"

Eighteen months later, over two billion trees had been planted - shattering the campaign's initial goal and prompting UNEP to raise the bar. Today, the goal is to plant seven billion trees by 2010: one for every person on the planet.

Individuals and corporations are encouraged to enter pledges online, contributing anywhere from a single tree to several million trees.

To learn more, visit http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign