2013 Plant a Tree Games
To initiate the Project, we are organizing the World’s first “2013 Plant a Tree Games” to be held this coming Saturday May 4th, 2013 in La Esperanza, Sarapiquí, Costa Rica; reforesting 10 hectares (25 acres) of the Sarapiquí Municipal Sanitary Landfill. The 2013 Games are being sponsored by the Municipality of Sarapiquí, and the Costa Rican and American Private Sectors.
During the 2 hours of ‘Competition’, Teams of 10 students from 10 local public and private schools will compete to see which Team plants the most trees; while 10 US Teams of 10 students each follow the Games over the Internet; and help their Teammates in Costa Rica to sell the ‘Most Oxygen’ over the Internet.
But why plant trees?
Originally, Earth was covered with an estimated 6 trillion trees. During the last 50 years, approximately half of Earth’s forests have been cut or an estimated 3 Trillion trees have disappeared. The effects of removing half of Earth’s forests are now readily apparent as Global Climate Change is causing increasingly extreme weather across the entire planet.
In order to replace the 3 Trillion missing trees and stop Global Warming would require every man, woman and child alive today to plant an estimated 425 trees; while protecting an additional 425 existing trees. Obviously, getting all 7 billion inhabitants of Earth to plant or protect 850 trees is probably next to impossible. But it might not be impossible for Earth’s Next Generation of approximately 2.5 billion children to plant and protect only 2,400 trees each; over the next fifty years or the same period of time it took to deforest the planet. Actually, you only need a quarter of a hectare (approximately ½ acre) of land to plant 2,400 trees; not a difficult task for even a child.
The Global Next Generation Project is a continuation of a successfully completed Haiti Vanilla-Cocoa Project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented in Northern Haiti by Vanilla Export Company. The ‘Idea’ of the New Project is to motivate children from primary and secondary schools to plant trees in exchange for University Scholarships; with the scholarships depending upon the number of trees planted and protected.
The 2013 Plant a Tree Games will put the ‘Project Concept’ to the ‘Test’, i.e. the Next Generation can be motivated to plant trees in exchange for a University Scholarship; when 10 Costa Rican Teams of 10 students from 10 local public and private schools ‘Compete’ to plant the most trees during the 2 hours of ‘Competition’; with the CR-US Team that ‘Plants More Trees’ and ‘Sells More Oxygen’ over the Internet winning First Prize.
The Project Goal is to develop 40 public and private schools each, in Costa Rica, the US and Haiti; and level the ‘Educational Playing Field’ with the transfer of the latest educational technology and resources from ‘Rich Schools’ to ‘Less-Rich Schools’.
Take a lot at the Participating Schools so far