Hands on!
UNEP staff members start fulfilling their collective pledge to plant 500,000 trees in 2007

On 17th April 2007, at the invitation of Mr. Bakary Kante, Director of the Division of Environmental Law and Conventions , UNEP staff members planted 1,000 trees in Kereita forest, on the slopes of the Aberdares mountain range.

36 staff members from 12 different countries from Senegal to the Philippines undertook to lead by example and to spend a morning near the majestic Kenyan Rift Valley to plant 1,000 trees from a variety of indigenous species.

This initiative is linked to the International Day for Biological Diversity, which will be commemorated on 22 May. As part of the efforts to catalyze people's action in support of awareness raising around this year's theme "Biodiversity and Climate Change", every UNEP Division has endeavoured to mobilize its staff to purchase seedlings and plant them in a water catchments area north of Nairobi, where UNEP is headquartered. A number of volunteers from the Kijabe civil society organization and the Kenyan Forest Service as well as members of the surrounding farming communities joined in. They had already dug the holes, gave UNEP staff a briefing on the "art of tree planting" and everyone knelt down to adjust the width and depth of the holes and plant their vigorous seedlings in moist soil.

The trees will be entrusted to the villagers living near the forest. With the onset of the rainy season, they have a very good chance to survive and grow tall, acting as carbon sinks to mitigate climate change, reducing soil erosion, providing habitat for birds and producing life-giving oxygen.

More UNEP staffers will follow and take concrete action for reforestation in Kenya.