PLANT A TREE, PLANT A FUTURE CAMPAIGN
National.
Athletes, pop stars, actors, politicians and police in Macedonia took part in a massive tree planting campaign on Wednesday.
Thousands of people poured in to various pick up points from where they were transported on buses, leaving every two hours, to 63 locations around the country where tree planting is underway.
The campaign, under the slogan “plant your future”, was initially launched by local and international non-governmental organisations but has gained in momentum after the government gave its backing to the project at the beginning of the month.
The aim is to plant some 2.1 million trees across Macedonia- one to match each citizen residing in the country.
The start of the campaign was marked with a symbolic planting of a cherry tree, near the grave of the recently deceased pop icon, Tose Proeski who was killed in a car accident in Croatia on October 16 last year. His death shocked the country and there was a outpouring of emotion for several days after the tragedy.
The Jewish community has also announced it will plant 7200 trees to mach the number of Jews that perished during the fascist regime which occupied Macedonia during the Second World War.
In a sign of friendship, the country’s border police together with colleagues from neighbouring states will plant trees along the main border crossings.
“We want to see Macedonia as a small oasis of forest,” government spokesman Ivica Bocevski told media two weeks ago when he announced backing for the campaign.
The campaign is part of a bigger programme that envisages planting some 10 million trees by the end of 2008. Macedonia was hit by a series of wildfires that raged across the whole Balkans region during the summer of 2007.
The government has previously calculated a damage of over 60 million euros, but ecologists claim that the harm to the environment is in fact incalculable.
Organisers have said they would like to see this campaign in other Balkan countries as well.
MD: Great initiative!
[Balkaninsight]
He who loves Macedonia plants trees and looks after its nature!
Posted by
Anonymous |
19:06
Good idea!
Posted by
Anonymous |
01:49
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