Ontario’s pledges participation in the Billion Tree Campaign

Province joins United Nations Billion Tree Campaign to help fight climate change.

Ontario’s plan for planting 50 million trees across southern Ontario by 2020 to help fight climate change is the biggest North American tree planting program pledged to the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced today.

"Fighting climate change is a global challenge, and I’m proud Ontario is joining the United Nations Environment Programme’s global campaign to plant a billion trees a year,” said McGuinty. “Planting 50 million trees in southern Ontario will remove from our atmosphere by 2054 3.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, equal to 95-km car trips, and help us move forward, together, towards a future that is greener and healthier with a better quality of life for all Ontarians.”

“I must applaud Ontario for joining this world-wide effort to plant a billion trees. Many people, faced with huge, seemingly insurmountable challenges such as climate change can often feel powerless to act,” said Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner.  “Tree planting restores that power back to individuals and communities making them again part of the solution to the climate change challenge. However, the act of planting a tree goes further – reconnecting the human spirit to the beauty and importance of the natural world which is the basis of all life on Earth.”

In the first phase of the program, the Ministry of Natural Resources, through a partnership with the Trees Ontario Foundation, will invest more than $4 million to plant two million trees by 2008-2009, with a focus on large areas of open private and public land, including municipal and county forest lands, conservation authority lands and provincial lands. The province will work with the Trees Ontario Foundation, Ontario Stewardship and other partners to plan and deliver the program locally. The ministry will also consult with the agencies and partners on the best way to ramp up the program to plant as many as five million trees a year for a total of 50 million trees by 2020.

“Ontarians know that planting trees cleans the air, provides shade, increases wildlife habitat and helps prevent flooding, as well as storing carbon,” said Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay. “By working together with conservation organizations and citizens, we can take action to reduce the impacts of climate change and grow a greener province.”

The province will also work with the foundation and other partners to build on their public education and outreach efforts to raise awareness among landowners, the general public and children and youth of how planting trees improves our shared environment.

This is just one more example of how, working together, Ontarians are achieving results in ensuring a healthier natural environment and mitigating the effects of climate change. Other initiatives include:

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