28 July 2009: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), as part of its Billion Tree Campaign, has announced that Pakistan has set a Guinness World Record for planting 541,176 trees in 24 hours.

The record-breaking event, organized by Pakistan’s Ministry of the Environment, is part of the country’s activities marking this year as the National Year of Environmental Protection.
The young mangrove saplings were planted by 300 volunteers on 15 July without the aid of any mechanical equipment in the wetlands of the Indus River Delta in Thatta District. Mangroves are particularly useful in carbon sequestration and protect coastlines from erosion as well as tsunamis. Pakistan has been active in increasing its national forest coverage, has set a target of one million hectares of new forests by 2015, and plans to plant 50 million saplings during the monsoon period this year. [UNEP press release][Billion Tree Campaign website]