Officials from the Philippines announced on Saturday that the country had broken a world record by planting approximately 3.2 million trees in just one hour.
The seedlings were planted on the southern island of Mindanao as part of a national reforestation program. 160,000 Filipinos, including government employees, students, and volunteers, took part in the record.
Though Guinness still has to confirm the numbers before it gives its official certification, regional environment director Marc Fragada, who was heavily involved in the project, is confident that the Philippines beat the record of 1.9 million trees set by India in August of 2011.
The trees were planted in six different areas on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao by an army of 160,000 people including government employees, students and volunteers, said the regional environment director Marc Fragada.
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| Young students taking part in the historic tree-planting |
"Our official count is about 3.2 million trees in one hour. But we are still getting reports. We still have to prepare the packaging of documentary evidence (for Guinness)," he told AFP.
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“They were chosen by the planters in hopes that the local people will take good care of them because it will be part of their livelihood,” Fragada said.'
The Philippine islands were once covered in dense forest, but decades of development, logging and slash-and-burn farming practices have destroyed much of that.
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| Mindanao residents planting trees |
Back in 2011, Philippines President Benigno Aquino established a program with the goal of planting 1.5 billion trees on 1.5 million hectares of land before his presidency ends in 2016.
Saturday’s world record puts the country one step closer to that goal.
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Read the original story from Yahoo! News here.
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