Lagos — The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has met a promise to plant a billion trees as one unique response to the global climate change challenge.

Following a pledge of 20 million trees by Senegal, the five month-old Billion Tree Campaign has surpassed its initial goal some seven months ahead of its original target.

Organisers, which also include the Green Belt Movement and the World Agro-forestry Centre (ICRAF) have been astonished at the international enthusiasm for the campaign with people aged 5 years-old to 80, drawn from developing and developed countries, joining forces with communities, kindergartens, scouts groups, schools, universities, artists, city councils, companies and countries to achieve the initial goal.

The campaign, announced at the recent climate change convention conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, now switches to turning the pledges into one billion plantings by the end of the year.

Speaking on the campaign, Mr. Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said 2007 will go down as the year of full stops in respect to the climate change debate. He was speaking on the International Day for Biological Diversity coordinated by the Convention on Biological Diversity.

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has put a full stop behind the science (climate change is happening; a full stop behind the impacts) they are underway and will impact on every corner of the planet, and a full stop behind the economics, tackling climate change will cost just 0.1 of annual GDP, perhaps less".

"The other big question has been whether the public is ready, whether it is politically possible to mobilise individuals, communities and nations en masse to counter the rise in green-house gases. The Billion Tree Campaign gives us the final full stop on this debate too", he said.

"Countries and communities as well as corporations and individual citizens across the developed and developing world have responded to the challenge with grassroots enthusiasm and commitment. It should empower governments everywhere in the sure and certain knowledge that addressing climate change is not a political risk but perhaps the most popular move of our time, with their electorate and the public right behind them," added Steiner.

This year's theme is 'Biodiversity and Climate Change' and comes just weeks after the release of a series of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which also highlight the challenges facing bio-diversity, and by inference livelihoods and human well- being, as a result of the build up of greenhouse gases.

The IPCC states, for example, that tourism in Africa, much of which is based on nature, is likely to be hard hit, with 25 per cent to 40 per cent of animal species such as zebra in the national parks of sub-Saharan Africa set to become endangered.

The original inspiration for the Billion Tree Campaign came from its co-patron, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai. Indeed, the first pledge of 2 million trees was put forward by the Green Belt Movement environmentalist who has been tireless in supporting the Billion Tree Campaign.

"I am quite sure that, with the support of the African Heads of States whose countries border the Sahara Desert, we could achieve this goal. We need to empower communities along the route and persuade them to both plant and be the caretakers of the trees to ensure that they survive. This is our dream, come be part of the dream and the Billion Tree Campaign", added Maathai, also founder of the Green Belt Movement.

The Billion Tree Campaign was announced on 8 November 2006 at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change Conference and initiated in January 2007.

The Billion Tree Campaign, which operates through a unique and dedicated interactive web site, demonstrates that a concrete people-centred initiative can be an incentive for positive and immediate environmental action.