2007

THE “LIDOT.LV” FOREST PLANTED

On May 19 tree planting action was organised at the Vecumnieki Department of Central Daugava Forestry within the scope of the campaign “Thinking of Flying? Plant a Tree!”

In order to draw the attention of our community to the environmental pollution caused by airplanes the airplane ticket portal “Lidot.lv” has in partnership with AS Latvijas Valsts Meži organised the campaign “Thinking of Flying? Plant a Tree!”. Within the project all visitors to the portal could by buying a ticket on the portal buy and plant a tree that would when grown absorb the pollution caused by airplanes. About 300 people responded to the call via the Internet of which 90 persons interested participated in the final planting activity where they with the use of spades and specially designed planting tubes planted birch trees in the soil prepared for this purpose.

Airlines are one of the fastest growing generators of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere that causes the greenhouse effect which is creating the threat of world climate change. The substantial amount of pollution generated by the airline industry can be explained by the rapid growth of the airline traffic having increased by 80% compared with 1990. The number of flights in Latvia has from 1999 till 2006 increased by 107%. The number of passengers has over the same period increased 5 times and has reached two and a half million in 2006.  

The tree planting campaign was also supported by the company Amadeus – provider of IT in the tourism business and the airline company SAS.