With 7 million new trees, Costa Rica’s breathing easier
January 28th, 2009 | by admin |Seven million trees were planted in Costa Rica last year, and both the government and residents plan to do the same this year.
The campaign that has enabled the massive endeavor is called A qué sembras un árbol, roughly translated Go Plant a Tree, and was actually initiated by a group of youth who wanted to aid in the United Nations’ worldwide campaign Planting for the Planet. That campaign aimed to grow 1 billion trees in 2007 and 3.5 billion in 2008.
A qué sembras un árbol aims to promote reforestation, forestry awareness and sustainable forestry management, with larger goals of mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity, and regaining forest cover.
The success of the campaign depended on help from everyone: public institutions, privates businesses and volunteers, Environment Minister Roberto Dobles said.
Most of the trees planted can potentially later be used for wood materials, and their projected CO2 contribution was also taken into account. The three dominant types planted were teca, melina and other native species.
Dobles said careful consideration was taken when deciding when and where to plant the trees. The largest number of the trees (30 percent) were planted in Alajuela, and the second largest amount (about 19 percent) in Guanacaste.
This year the campaign hopes to plant 7 million trees again but in different areas.
For such a small country, with such a recent dedication to replanting, we’ve definitely made a lot of progress, said Dobles. We’re not a large country like the United States. For us, 7 million is a lot of trees.
Alfonso Barrantes, director of the National Forestry Office, aims to accomplish higher numbers, but added, We have our limits. Fifty-two percent of Costa Rica is already forest.
