Largest one-day reforestation ever recorded

Yesterday was an important day for Ecuador and for its citizens, a massive environment protection program was performed by tens of thousands of people in an attempt to regain their forests. The day was named Ecuador’s National Reforestation Day and more than 44,000 people in around 200 areas planted 647,250 trees. This event was part of a broader national policy aiming to protecting the environment in Ecuador, a policy started back in 2008 when President Rafael Correa declared environment protection a priority within his political program. Since then the Ecuadorean government has actively combated deforestation in this country, reducing the annual deforestation from about 100,000 acres a year to half of it, with over 1 million hectares preserved from deforestation during the years the program was active and in the next years.

Deforestation of some areas cannot be avoided since wood processing is an important sector of the Ecuadorean economy but the authorities want to compensate it with reforestation in previously affected areas, the goal being reaching a level of “zero deforestation” in a few years. $74 million is the amount of money the local government put in projects of reforestation with the help of the Environment Minister. The Minister of Environment Lorena Tapia wanted to “show Ecuador is committed to the protection of the environment” and invited citizens to contribute in this process, the Ecuador’s National Reforestation Day or “Siembratón” being only the first of a series of similar events.

This environment protection event it’s the only one of this kind, in 2012 Ecuador started collecting plastic bottles in a similar program, with over one million plastic bottles, weighing approximately 40,000 kilograms being collected during a one week program.