Triglav Glacier campaign to plant 13,000 trees in Slovenia
Ljubljana, 11 January - The Triglav Glacier to Beijing campaign, which is bringing a small piece of ice from the glacier on Mt Triglav to the Winter Olympics venue in Beijing, will plant a tree in Slovenia for every kilometre travelled. At least 13.000 new trees will be planted, the Slovenian Olympic Committee (OKS) said.
Kočevje
Spruce forest in Kočevje area.
Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA
The Slovenian Olympic Committee launched the Triglav Glacier to Beijing campaign to raise awareness about the need to preserve glaciers in December.
The travelling sample of the glacier, symbolically designated the Triglav Olympic Ice or Toli, will be brought to Beijing by a hybrid vehicle and displayed there during the Winter Olympic Games.
A new aspect has now been added to the campaign - reforestation in Slovenia, where one tree will be planted for every kilometre travelled by the glacier sample, said the OKS.
The newly planted young trees will cover a total area of five hectares. According to calculations by the Energy Efficiency Centre at the Jožef Stefan Institute, the trees will take about seven months to remove from the atmosphere the total amount of CO2 produced during the project.
The OKS added that the team transporting the glacier sample, led by Slovenian automotive vlogger Ciril Komotar, has so far covered 5,720 kilometres of its planned journey and are now in Russia.
In addition to raising awareness about the disappearance of the world's glaciers, the team is documenting examples of good practice in the transition to a low-carbon society and learning about simple approaches for individuals to live more sustainably.