United Nations Billion Tree Campaign - Response

Response

Under UNEP’s leadership and through proactive advocacy by the patrons and the partners, the Billion Tree Campaign catalysed tree planting action on all continents. The billionth tree, an African Olive, was planted in Ethiopia in November 2007. The two billionth tree took root as part of the United Nation’s World Food Programme agroforestry initiative. The campaign’s target was then raised to seven billion trees. In 2009, UNEP mobilized action across the globe through the Twitter for Trees campaign on www.twitter.com/UNEPandYou. The initiative was driven by a simple yet powerful idea: UNEP pledged to plant one tree to feed into the Billion Tree Campaign, for every follower who joined from 5 May 2009 to World Environment Day on 5 June 2009. The campaign was a success, with 10,300 people following the UNEPandYou page by World Environment Day weekend.

The World Organization of the Scouts Movement also planted trees under the campaign in line with its mandate to study and protect Nature across several countries.

The United Nations Peacekeeping missions also joined the campaign and planted trees with its field missions in East-Timor, Côte d'Ivoire, Darfur, Lebanon, Haiti, Congo, and Liberia amongst others missions.