Macedonia Goes Green

Posted Friday, March 14, 2008, 5:06 AM by Lonely Planet

In a move that should catch the attention of larger, richer and purportedly greener countries, Macedonia took a day off work on March 12 to plant some trees.

No, it's not because they've suddenly discovered their green karma. The aim of the project was to restore the countries forests which suffered over 600 fires during the summer of 2007 - fires that also swept through swathes of forest in Greece and Italy.

For such a small and usually headline shy nation, it is a commendable and newsworthy piece of action. Especially as Macedonia has long been regarded as one of the greenest and wildest parts of Europe. Just take a look at gorgeous, tree-fringed Lake Ohrid - Europe's oldest lake renowned for its botanical diversity and overlooked by the ridiculously charming Church of St John of Kaneo.

The event was the idea of Boris Trajanov, one of Macedonia's leading opera singers, and a UNESCO ambassador.

More than 200,000 people planted over 2 million trees - a nice piece of civic symmetry that makes for one tree for every Macedonian. Participants included government ministers, policemen, celebrities and members of the general public (we've heard that even border guards from neighbouring Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania joined in with their shovels in an encouraging show of cross-border co-operation).

Go forth and plant, we say!

Will Gourlay, Commissioning Editor, Eastern Europe

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