. | . |
Macedonia plants six million trees to revive fire-ravaged forests
Skopje (AFP) Nov 19, 2008 Macedonians took a day off work on Wednesday to plant six million trees in an action launched back in March to revive forests after fires ravaged an estimated 35,000 hectares of greenery. "The main goal of the 'Day of The Tree -- Plant your future' initiative is to protect the environment and increase ecological awareness among citizens," the government said in a statement. Along with human rights activists and artists, many citizens took the opportunity of a day off work as volunteers to plant the trees. Participants also included 1,800 soldiers who alone planted 200,000. Wildfires destroyed thousands of hectars of forests in the region around the southern town of Bitola during last summer. Organisers hope Macedonia's neighbours in the Balkans would follow suit with similar actions, proposing they plant millions of trees throughout the region. The initiative was first organised in March by Boris Trajanov, prominent Macedonian opera singer and UNESCO Artist for Peace. At the time, more than 200,000 people, among them ministers, policemen, government officials, artists and ambassadors, planted two million trees throughout the country. The action was a bid to revive the forestry of Macedonia, which suffered at least 600 devastating fires in the summer of 2007, mostly caused by human error, but also due to extremely high temperatures, especially in July. At least 35,000 hectares of forests are estimated to have been burned in the past two years, causing damage of up to 30 million euros (37.8 million dollars). Experts said that restoring the damaged ecosystem could take up to 50 years. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Forestry News - Global and Local News, Science and Application
Left untouched, world's largest mangrove forest recovering fast Dhaka (AFP) Nov 15, 2008 The world's largest mangrove forest is recovering fast from one of the worst disasters in its history, a year after it was badly damaged by a devastating cyclone, Bangladesh officials say. |
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |