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Trees for Life - Grow a Tree (Third Year, 2001)

Region: China
Author: Zhou Yun/Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
Consortium Member: Green Earth Volunteers (China)
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $500 Collected: $500 Needs: $0
Result: Children from different elementary schools throughout China participate in this project, which consists of germinating and planting their own trees. They will also write short papers on their experiences.
Donors: "Friends of the Fragile Earth", Church of the Epiphany, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania [January 2001]
Comment: The American donor, "Friends of the Fragile Earth", has ensured that this project was replicated and expanded to involve more schools and children in the coming year.

View the Progress Report, July 2001.

Description of the project:

Environmental education is perhaps the most cost-effective way to promote long-term sustainable use of natural resources. Environmental education in primary schools should be an essential goal for all countries.

The "Trees for Life: Grow a Tree" project was started in 1994 in Beijing with the help of the Virtual Foundation and China Environmental Foundation. One aspect of the project is to provide information and resources necessary for planting trees and for understanding the importance of trees in the survival of life on this planet to elementary school children. The project includes a hands-on Tree Planting & Awareness Kit that allows children to germinate and plant a tree from seed and to care for it.

The other aspect of the project is to organize a letter exchange program between children from different countries who are participating in the project (Canada, India, Chile, etc.). The letter exchange enables strudents to share their thoughts and tree-growing experiences with a pen pal in a foreign country, and gives children a unique opportunity to share a common bond with children from radically different cultures.

Purpose of the project:

This is an environmental education project. It is found that participation ofthe people is essential for environmental protection program to be effective. Public participation requires education to inform people about their environment and the means of protecting it, and to encourage them to participate in environmental protection efforts. By focusing on China's children we hope that the Trees For Life project can educate a new "green generation" who will be well-prepared for the task of protecting China's environment in the 21st century.

This is also a reforestation project by planting trees from a seed, which is a very important aspect of China's environmental protection efforts. Trees can avert soil erosion, improve air quality, help to counter the threat of global warming and depletion of the earth's oxygen supply, provide habitat for indigenous animal life, etc.

Project duration: March - December 1999.

Project Outcomes: