At the second day of the European Commission’s conference ‘Our Forests, Our Future’, Commissioner Hogan announced the possibility of a ‘Trees for Kids’ scheme to provide solutions to reach national and European objectives in line with our post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy proposals. The scheme would target support to planting of trees by schoolchildren.
On Friday, at the last day of the European conference ‘Our Forests, Our Future’ Commissioner Hogan announced the idea of a “Trees for Kids” scheme. The announcement was followed by a symbolic tree planting ceremony with Commissioner Hogan accompanied by schoolchildren in the Parc du Cinquantenaire.
According to the Commissioner, concrete policy action should include educational and awareness raising programmes. He therefore proposes a new scheme similar to the current “School fruit, vegetables and milk scheme”, under the common agricultural policy (CAP). The “Trees for Kids” scheme would be aimed at children who attend primary or secondary schools in all Member States. Support could be granted for the planting of trees, accompanying educational measures and could cover certain related costs linked to equipment, logistics, or publicity.
The “Trees for Kids” scheme financed through the CAP could raise the awareness we urgently need, as it would encourage the next generation to highlight the great value our forests have for our future. The scheme would allow the educational system to play a central part in the provision of public goods, through the simple planting of a tree by schoolchildren.
Commissioner Hogan encourages Member States to take up this initiative, as it’s a great example of doing something small for educating our children about the value of forestry in the context of public goods like climate action and biodiversity. In addition, the scheme would play an integral role in achieving the 9 objectives as presented in the future CAP proposals.
Commissioner Hogan said
I put this idea out here today for the purpose of Member States to consider. The Commission will provide the policy framework, but it is up to the Member States to take concrete action to seize this opportunity.