A global effort - PRIMA KLIMA's tree-planting projects

American Forests, Nov-Dec, 1993 by John Falconer, John O'Toole

Germany's PRIMA KLIMA answers the call to think globally and act locally.

In Slovakia earlier this year, the Slovak Union of Nature and Landscape Protectors planted trees in Tatra National Park and in housing developments in the towns of Banska Stiavnica and Dolny Kubin. The three projects planted a total of 56 eight- to 10-foot-tall trees and more than 20,000 seedlings.

More than 75,000 trees, including those planted in Slovakia, were planted throughout the world last spring by Global ReLeaf International partners. These projects were supported by PRIMA KLIMA, a nongovernmental organization in Germany that raises money for tree-planting projects to sequester carbon dioxide. Individuals and organizations can calculate their "carbon responsibility" using an energy-usage worksheet developed by PRIMA KLIMA, which then offers to pay for the planting of an appropriate number of trees as a way to offset this responsibility.

PRIMA KLIMA, an international partner in AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf program since 1991, often uses the network to solicit project proposals from partners in various countries. Together the planting projects--in Ecuador, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Florida--will draw an estimated 736 tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually.

PRIMA KLIMA also develops educational materials, works with policymakers in Germany, and organizes international scientific meetings with the goal of educating others about the potential effects of carbon dioxide on the earth's atmosphere.

In addition to the plantings in Slovakia, 1993 PRIMA KLIMA projects include:

* Nearly 700 trees planted on a seven-acre stretch of Ecuador's Pasochoa Protected Forest, in the Andean mountains. The trees, planted by Fundacion Natura, will benefit the environment not only by sequestering carbon but by protecting damaged grassland from erosion and by creating a buffer zone next to the Pasochoa forest.

* In Ukraine, the planting of 8,830 trees and shrubs by the National Ecological Centre with help from schoolchildren. EcoCentre often involves children in its projects to help revive the traditional Ukrainian appreciation of nature. These projects will protect watersheds of several small rivers, including the Trubizh, Sesenka, and Oster. The PRIMA KLIMA grant also helped support the preparation of 100,000 seedlings in a nursery for future planting.

* Using native trees to help restore Blackwater River State Forest in Florida. The forest has one of the country's largest remaining stands of longleaf pine, which once dominated the southeastern U.S. The project is converting slash-pine plantations--which aren't doing so well--back to native longleaf pine.

Chrystia Sonevytsky, Global ReLeaf international coordinator, points to PRIMA KLIMA's efforts--which affect thousands of people throughout the world--as the embodiment of the environmental rallying cry, "Think Globally, Act Locally." Questions about Global ReLeaf International can be directed to Sonevytsky at AMERICAN FORESTS, 202/667-3300, ext. 231.