New tree planting world record!

The race is on! Only last month we reported here that Pakistan is holding the tree planting Guinness World Record. Well, not anymore. The new record holder is India!

Treehugger reported that volunteers in Dungarpur, India attempted on Wednesday to plant 600,000 trees in 24 hours. The last record from last month was was 541,176 trees planted in one day.

UNEP, which highlights this initiative with regards to its (seven) billion tree campaign, adds on its website the following details:

The volunteers will be planting Mango, Neem, Teak and Jatropha trees; all indigenous species that will eventually provide food, medicinal value and timber to the community.

Once planted, the trees will be 'adopted' by local villagers to ensure that they are watered and maintained. The after-care will be supervised by the Indian Forestry Service. The trees will also be registered under UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign, and will go a long way to helping it meet its target of 7 billion trees planted by December 2009.

Well, now we have to wait and see how much time the current record will hold. In any event, we hope it will be broken many more times, as no matter who holds it, we all profit from this race!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green reading!

Aaspirations Publishing believes recession is the time to expand and opens an office in India

Eco-Libris is a proud partner of Aaspirations Publishing, a green publisher of Toronto, Canada that is opening now a second office in India!

We're collaborating with Aaspriations Publishing to plant a tree is for every copy of their new titles, which will also carry our logo ‘One tree planted for every book’. We have planted so far trees for great books such as "The Micro Meanies" by Lynda Anderson and "Where the Buttercups Grow" by Shelley Meyer.

Aaspirations Publishing is reporting that a close association is planned between the two offices to nurture and bring talent to the forefront and enable increasing book sales in both countries through co-publishing deals.

The first three books to be launched in India will be The Micro Meanies by Lynda Anderson and Melanie Bennett and The Haven Spear by Nick Mucci.

Both the books are part of a brand, with multi-title series and the possibilities for merchandising and more. 'I see a closer connection between books and movies, merchandising and music, and between different countries as talent abounds and gets an outlet to expand,' says publisher Anjali Sondhi.

More details on Aaspirations Publishing and their books is available at http://www.aaspirationspublishing.com

This is great news and we wish Aaspirations Publishing a great success with their move!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Green Options - Book Review: Earth Democracy

As part of Eco-Libris' ongoing content partnership with Green Options Media, we feature a post that was originally published by Kelli Best-Oliver on September 15 on Planetsave. Today's post is about a new and important book of Vananda Shiva.

In Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace, Indian physicist turned environmental activist Vandana Shiva calls for a radical shift in the values that govern democracies, decrying the role that unrestricted capitalism has played in the destruction of environments and livelihoods. By no means a new release, Shiva's book is incredibly timely as skyrocketing fuel costs jeopardize the rationality of globalization. Through explaining problems with expanding globalization and privatization of public goods and services, then illustrating examples of communities rejecting the intrusion of corporations into communities, Shiva outlines core beliefs that should result in what she deems “earth democracy”, a global community that honors and respects diverse forms of life and their respective cultures.

The amazing tree

Eco-Libris Environmental and Natural Resource Advisor, Gili Koniak, returned from a visit in India and brought us a great picture of her and one of the most amazing trees I've ever seen.

Here's Gili description of the photo:

The picture was taken in the state of Rajasthan (more precise, near Pushkar), in the desert. This is a tree from the Ficus family and one more thing - this is all one tree!!! the trunk with air-roots that became part of the trunk.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great green gift for the holidays!