The Billion Tree Campaign

Professor Wangaru Maathai, an environmental campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for 2004 and founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement, inspired the idea behind the Billion Tree Campaign.

Maathai planted more than 30 million trees throughout Africa since 1977 in an attempt to reverse the effects of deforestation.

In November 2006, at the annual climate change convention in Nairobi, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) officially launched the Plant for the Planet project.

The project's aim was to encourage individuals, communities, organisations and governments to plant one billion trees worldwide by the end of 2007.

In support of the campaign, Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) from the UAE pledged to plant one million trees throughout the UAE by the end of 2007. By November 2007, EEG had surpassed its target of planting more than 1.6 million trees.