Mexico To Plant Millions Of Trees: The Pro Árbol (Pro Tree) Campaign
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07. 3.07
Mexico's President, Felipe Calderon, declared that his country would plant 250 million trees and the Mexican government launched the Pro Árbol (Pro Tree) Campaign, sponsored by the Chemistry Nobel Prize winner, Mario Molina. The Mexican government will invest more than six billion pesos in 2007 with funds assigned to support nearly 400,000 inhabitants in ejidos and communities. The Pro-Árbol Program will be used to recover deforested areas amd recharge the aquifers. It will focus on four objectives: conservation and restoration, planning and forest organization, production and productivity, and the development of infrastructure, communication and other things required to contribute to sustainable forestry.
President Calderón explained that his government had signed an agreement with the United Nations, included in the Millennium Development Goals, pledging to incorporate the principles of sustainable development into national policies and programs and to reduce the loss of environmental resources. Via:: Planeta.com
The 250 million trees pledged are all indigenous to Mexico and include the following species:
Acacia farnesiana, Agave atrovirens,Agave crupeata,Agave sp,Alnus sp,Brosimium alicastrum,Cedrela odorata,Cupresus lindleyi,Enterolobium cyclocarpum,Junglas piriformis,Junglas regia,Liquidambar macrophylla,Pinus arizonica,Pinus ayacahuite,Pinus cembroides,Pinus cooperi,Pinus chiapensis,Pinus devoniana,Pinus douglasiana,Pinus durangensis,Pinus engelmannii,Pinus gregii, Pinus hartwegii,Pinus jeffreyi,Pinus michoacana,Pinus montezumae,Pinus nelsoni,Pinus oaxacana,Pinus oocarpa,Pinus patula,Pinus pinceana,Pinus pseudostrobus,Pinus rudis,Pinus teocote,Pithecelobium paliens,Prosopis glandulosa, Prosopis laevigata,Prosopis velutina,Quercus sp,Quercus virens,Swietenia macrophylla,Yuca filifera.
Image credit:: Wildflower.org, Acacia farnesiana
Mexico should plant whats appropriate for the region, and shouldn't just trumpet tree-growing. The Israeli tree-growing experience (along with "making the desert bloom") didn't pan out well, owing to inappropriate planting choices that consume unreasonable levels of water. It's true Mexico has a lot of native unspoiled oak savanna, (more so than the US, where it's largely been converted to agriculture or grown over because of no-burn policies). Maybe Mexico should just focus on keeping that native habitat healthy and slowing restoring edges of it that have been eaten away.
I'll believe it when it happens. The Mexican government has a bad habit of saying things to get good press and then pretending it was a proposal not a commitment...
If they are planting Native species - way to go.
Yay Yay Yay YAy YAy YAY!!!
Bravo, Mexico! Mi heroe!
(I just hope they're native species, too. But a glance at that list looks like at least some of them are, as far as I know.)
you guys rule.