VF Corporation brand Timberland has announced its ambition to plant 50 mn trees around the world by 2025, as it looks to offset the effects of climate change the world over and inspire others to take similar restorative action. The outdoor apparel firm’s pledge coincides with its global campaign: Nature Needs Heroes – through which it is celebrating 12 proclaimed ‘eco-heroes’ and their efforts, to date, to mitigate global warming.
“At Timberland, we’re conscious of the impact our modern way of life has on the planet. We believe as a global lifestyle brand, and as individuals, we have a responsibility to make it better,” Jim Pisani, Timberland’s Global Brand President commented.
With this commitment to counteract the ongoing rates at which deforestation is wiping out landscapes, most prominently within the Amazon rainforest, Timberland is partnering with a number of organisations to offset the damage. By collaborating with the Smallholder Farmers Alliance, Tee Aid, GreenNetwork, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Connect4Climate, Justdiggit, Las Lagunas Ecological Park, Trees for the Future, Treedom and American Forests, the company is well connected in achieving its target within the next 5-6 years.
It’s said that the project, in its first year, will prioritise its restorative practices in Haiti, the USA, China, the Dominican Republic, Tanzania and Mali. The brand will also support the Great Green Wall, a movement within Africa which aims to grow a line of trees spanning the width of Africa, in a stance against climate change, and other problematic areas within the continent, such as conflict and migration.
“We are thrilled to have Timberland join the Great Green Wall movement – an emerging new world wonder that promises to grow hope for millions of people in the face of the 21st century’s most urgent challenges,” Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, concluded.
