The URI Global Council Trustees representing our URI grassroots network invite everyone to participate in the UN Environmental Program campaign to plant a billion trees in 2007, inspired by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai. 

The news release below contains much valuable information, but please also visit the web site at http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign and make your pledge.

Jim Sniffen, the Information Officer for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), provides a description of the Program:

From Small Acorns - Campaign Launched by UNEP to Plant  A Billion Trees

Wangari Maathai, Prince of Monaco and Agroforestry Experts Back Global Down-to-Earth Action to Combat Climate Change

NAIROBI, 8 November 2006 ­The vital importance of voluntary collective action in the fight against climate change is spotlighted today with the launch of a new campaign to plant a billion trees.

The Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), will encourage all sectors of society--from the concerned citizen to the philanthropic corporation-- to take small but practical steps to combat what is probably the key challenge of the 21st century.

The campaign, backed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Green Belt Movement activist Professor Wangari Maathai, His Serene Highness Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco and the World Agroforestry Centre-ICRAF, was unveiled at the annual UN Climate Change Convention Conference taking place in Nairobi.