Costa Rica’s initiatives in forest conservation and replanting of trees are part of the plan that President Laura Chinchilla referred to as “becoming a Green Power” when she officially kicked off the Limpia tu Huella (Erase your Carbon Footprint) campaign a few days ago. Similar efforts are now spreading in South America.

A recent article published by the AlertNet Thomson Reuters Foundation Service indicated that “Initiatives to plant new trees and restore forests are being launched across South America – both to repair the damage done to huge swathes of land cleared for farming, and to promote carbon storage in vegetation, which helps mitigate climate change.”

The AlertNet article mentioned the work performed by Argentinian schoolchildren in the San Luis province. The students at an elementary school in the community of El Trapiche calculate the carbon footprint left by the electricity that generated and delivered to their homes. The result is measured in carbon dioxide (CO2) units, which helps students determine how many trees should be replanted in order to absorb that CO2 amount.

Once they have calculated how many trees they need, the schoolchildren from El Trapiche get their hands dirty and begin replanting according to guidelines provided by researchers at University of La Punta. This initiative is clearly a win-win situation for all, since it teaches children about the importance of carbon neutrality, and the hands-on aspect of replanting helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb the effects of climate change.

The students at El Trapiche went door-to-door in their neighborhoods and completed surveys that determined the amount of electricity consumed by each household. A nine year-old student named Camila told AlertNet that her first survey moved her to plant five trees, and a subsequent survey called for even more trees to replant.

The amount of trees planted by this initiative since 2008 is estimated at 200,000 across 20 communities in Argentina. There are 6,000 children (and their parents) currently working on the program, but researchers hope to increase that figure to 50,000 in the next few years.

Other Reforestation Programs in South America

Prior to 1990, deforestation in South America was practically out of control.

Brazil became one of the world’s leading agricultural power due to the indiscriminate clearing of large forest areas that were converted to farm land. Reforestation initiatives such as the one carried on by the Argentinian schoolchildren of El Trapiche are helping mend some of that damage.

In the populous state of Sao Paulo, Brazilian environmentalists are educating the population and providing seedlings for replanting in their own farms. This agroforestry initiative has seen the replanting of 450,000 trees since 2009.