From: Cool Earth
Environmentalists in Kenya will plant 7.6 billion trees to counter the effects of deforestation in the country, it has been revealed.
Over the next two decades the trees will be planted but as only three per cent of land in the African nation is protected by the authorities it may not be enough, reports Reuters.
Government officials want to protect ten per cent of land to slow the rate of deforestation.
"We will have to plant 4.1 million hectares in order to make a percentage that is internationally acceptable," said environment minister John Michuki.
"You are talking about 7.6 billion trees," he added. "In my estimation, it is going to cost us $20 billion over 20 years."
This figure is out of reach of the government's own spending budget and it only plans to spend $650 million on repairing the nation's worn out roads.
Meanwhile, environmentalists in Brazil have called on meatpackers to not buy produce from farms created by clearing large areas of the Amazon rainforest, reports Reuters.