Peru Planting 512,820 Trees a Day to Fight Climate Change
Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture has launched an ambitious project. The goal: plant 40 million trees in 3 months to help deter the effects of climate change.
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The effects of climate change are already particularly acute and diverse in Peru, a large country endowed with spectacular natural resources, ranging from the Amazon Rainforest, a desert coast, and the iconic Andes mountains. Proactive and radical solutions like this tree planting project are a good start to taking on the problems of deforestation and climate change, despite the challenges that might arise.
The director of the project, Rodolfo Beltran, was quoted as saying that “it hasn’t been easy to obtain 40 million trees, then carefully select the areas where they are to be planted, and finally, determine how they are to be maintained.” I don’t doubt a word he said.
The trees will be planted in 18 of Peru’s departments (i.e. states) and will include eucalyptus, pine, cypress, and pepper trees. An estimated 570,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide will be captured by the new trees each year. This type of planting could become profitable for developing countries like Peru, particularly if carbon cap-and-trade initiatives catch on amongst developed countries like the United States.
But the program contains an additional benefit that is more immediate to the people of Peru. 128,000 temporary jobs will be created by the project. After all, who’s going to plant those trees? In a country where 39.3% of the population lives in poverty, forcing some people to scavenge through garbage, even temporary jobs can make a huge difference in quality of life and economic development.
Cheers to Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture for envisioning such an ambitious project. Here’s wishing them much success. We will continue following the story at EcoWorldly and will write about it again when updated information is available.
Photo Credit: Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park © Levi T. Novey
YES!
We should be doing this in America.
We just gotta stop cutting them down first.
Thanks for the article Levi,
That is a great project. However, I was wondering how their are planning to maintain or take care of those young trees?
I do not think you can plant trees and leave them without any care, at least for a little.
Anyways. Great news! I hope we can do the same in our countries.
[...] these people deserve Al Gores nobel peace prize since hes a wasteful bastard! 512,820 trees planted a day! [...]
Glad to see at least some people care…
Sounds like all of those trees are alien to Peru, which is home to the one of the largest floras on the planet. Why cant they plant native trees?
Also, this sound great but Peru will screw it up somehow.
From the negative, shoot-from-the-hip tenor of several of the replies to the article both here and on another page, my hopes of our pulling the planet out of its exponentially progressing warming are even dimmer than before. Too bad. It was a magnificent planet, while it lasted. Keep trying anyway, Levi.
Why would a country with more kinds of species than any other country import “eucalyptus, pine, cypress, and pepper” from elsewhere to plant in a wholesale process? Invasive species can create extreme ecological problems. Peru could create lots of jobs by cultivating native trees for these planting efforts.
Great project. That will help UNEP to reach their target of 7.000.000.000 trees planted in our World.
http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=2890
I agree with Don - planting non-native species ruins this project. Peru needs to be replanting their rainforests which have been devastated by logging (legan and otherwise), and doing so with the same native trees that grow there naturally; not setting up giant tree plantations full of non-natives. Eucalyptus and pepper trees are actually incredibly poor choices since they are both notoriously invasive and negatively impact the ph of the soil and harm other trees.
the ones who will benefit from this are the timber companies that will get to harvest these trees, not the poor and certainly not the environment.