YLI in co-operation with EuroCharity jointly launch 3-year restoration and reforestation programme in Greece

Following Greece’s recent shameful, horrific, catastrophic wildfires and destruction of forests and huge protected areas — as well as the tragic loss of human and animal lives, magnificent flora and fauna, and entire livelihoods, villages and properties — EuroCharity member YLI Environmental Protection and Management, Environmental Consultants Inc. in co-operation with EuroCharity officially launched a three-year Greek restoration and reforestation programme, as part of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign.

Under the “umbrella” of UNEP’s global tree-planting campaign, people, communities, business and industry, civil society organisations and governments are encouraged to enter tree planting pledges on-line with the objective of planting seven billion trees world-wide by the end of 2009.

“We have but a short time to avert damaging and economically debilitating climate change,” says Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director. “The solutions are numerous and, as many economists say, affordable when compared with the costs of complacency. The goods and services provided by forests are worth billions if not trillions of dollars to the global economy. Forests are natural and economically important ‘sinks’, sequestrating carbon from the atmosphere and locking it away in trunks and branches. Globally, forest cover is at least one-third less than what it once was. It is time to reverse the trends, it is time to act.“

UNEP’s Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign is under the patronage of:

• Prof. Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate: “When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope.”
• HSH Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco: “I believe in the symbolic strength of the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign and I sincerely hope it will meet our expectations, far beyond the welfare linked to replanting trees, to benefit future generations.”

Scientists agree, now is humanity’s window of opportunity to stop a climate catastrophe. Greece cannot afford to miss this chance to do something practical, positive and “hands on” for the environment, human lives and the climate. EuroCharity therefore warmly welcomes your own involvement and pro-active support!

For further information, please visit UNEP’s Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign site at: http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/.