Pakistan Sets Guinness World Record for Tree Planting

Wednesday, 29 July 2009 08:23

Pakistan has set a Guinness World Record for planting 541,176 trees in 24 hours. The young mangrove saplings were planted by 300 volunteers on 15 July without using any mechanical equipment in the vast wetlands of the Indus River Delta in Thatta District.

The tree-planting, which is part of Pakistan's pledge to plant 120 million trees in UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign, took place some 150 kilometers southeast of Karachi in a biodiversity sanctuary that was designated in 2002 by the government as the Wetland of International Importance.

The record-breaking event, organized by Pakistan's Ministry of the Environment, is also part of the country's activities marking this year as the National Year of Environmental Protection.

The previous record for the most trees planted in a single day was held by India with 447,874 trees.

In a call to further global action, UNEP is inviting everyone from civil society to the business community to Governments to plant trees as part of the Billion Tree Campaign and register their commitments to plant on the campaign's website: www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign