Mexico planted 250 million trees in 2007: Calderon

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Mexico planted 250 million trees in 2007: Calderon

Mon Dec 24, 2:33 PM ET

President Felipe Calderon on Sunday said Mexico in 2007 planted nearly
250 million trees, one fourth of the world total the UN Environment
Program (UNEP) had set to combat climate change.

"We're reaching the goal we set for ourselves that seemed so difficult
to reach, of planting 250 million trees in Mexico," Calderon told
reporters as he planted a pine tree in the grounds of his official Los
Pinos home in Mexico City.

Calderon, who in February joined the UNEP's tree-planting initiative,
said his government invested 540 million dollars in the reforestation
program.

"We used public funds to pay forest and jungle dwellers, most of them
from indigenous communities and among the poorest people in Mexico," to
plant trees, said the president, who has made sustainable development
one of his top priorities.

Mexico's prodigious effort, however, was criticized by Greenpeace in
Mexico spokeswoman Cecilia Navarro, who told reporters the
reforestation program was carried out "helter skelter."

The trees, she said, "are being planted anywhere," not necessarily
where they are appropriate and not necessarily near communities tasked
with monitoring their growth.

The reforestation program, she added, does not offset rampant
deforestation in Mexico, where "each year we lose at least 600,000
hectares (1.48 million acres) of forest," the fifth-fastest
deforestation rate in the world.

UNEP in November announced its year-long, worldwide reforestation
program was a success, with 1.4 billion trees planted and Ethiopia (700
million), Mexico, Turkey, Kenya, Cuba, Rwanda, South Korea, Tunisia,
Morocco and Myanmar the top 10 planters.

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