Green is the new black…



With his mandate coming up for renewal next year, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë is being especially careful to develop green initiatives in the city. A lot of our buses now run on natural gas rather than petrol, the Vélib bike rental service has been a huge success, and any building work undertaken by the city council has to prove that its method respect the environment.

Un Parisien, Un Arbre (One Parisian, One Tree) is a new venture that tries to incite each person living within the city limits to make a token donation which is used to plant a tree. However, the trees are not planted in Paris (we already have 184,000 in the streets and another 300,000 in the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes). The trees will actually be planted in developing countries that have French as their principal language, such as Cameroon, Madagascar and Haiti.

The project will not only help reduce CO2 emissions in these countries, but also protect the existing forests from being exploited. The local people will be taught how to manage a sustainable wood harvest, bringing much needed help to the local economy.

If you speak enough French to navigate through the website, click here to be part of the project.

P.S. This photo “under a tree” is (c) gadl and was taken in Paris’ Parc de La Villette. See more of his ‘Wee Planets’ photos here.