Target: 7.8bn trees to be planted worldwide

Dubai: Ecologically-minded people in the UAE are being encouraged to plant a tree on Friday as one billion people around the world celebrate Earth Day in 192 countries under this year’s theme, Trees for Earth.

The goal is to plant 7.8 billion trees worldwide — one for every person on Earth as world leaders are expected to gather to sign the Paris Climate Agreement at the United Nations.

Since its founding, the UAE has been led by late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s major push to green the emirates’ desert, a mantra followed up by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who in recent years has strongly encouraged a campaign in coordination with Dubai Police to plant one million trees.

Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) has championed the green cause with a major tree planting campaign since 2007 across the emirates.

Habiba Al Marashi, co-founder and chairwoman of EEG, said “tens of thousands of EEG volunteers have planted nearly 2.1 million indigenous trees ranging from ghaf to date palm varieties” to help support wildlife in deserts, villages and cities across the country.

Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network (EDN), said tree planting by as many people as possible is one of the most effective measures in the fight against climate change.

“Earth Day is the largest, most recognisable face of the environmental movement,” said Rogers. “Millions of people in dozens of different countries will become lifelong environmentalists on this and every Earth Day. Hundreds of thousands will be children — our planet’s future. They will join the more than one billion people who already use Earth Day to focus on the urgent need to stabilise and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, fight climate change, act locally, become climate voters, and protect their children’s futures.”

For this year’s campaign at Earth Day headquarters, organisers are focusing on trees as a prime weapon against global warming.

On its website, Earth Day organisers said: “Our planet is currently losing over 15 billion trees each year due to deforestation, land development, and bad forest management — that is roughly 48 football fields every minute.”

Organisers noted there is an “urgent need to plant new trees and forests worldwide. Throughout the year, EDN sponsors and takes part in tree plantings across the US and worldwide.

But this year we are raising the stakes. As we begin the four year countdown to Earth Day’s 50th anniversary in 2020, Earth Day Network is pledging to plant 7.8 billion trees worldwide — one for every person on Earth!

That’s incredibly ambitious, but we believe this down-payment must be made in order to combat climate change and keep our most vulnerable ecosystems from facing extinction.”

To learn more about Earth Day 2016, Trees for the Earth, and how you can get involved, click here.