APN conducts a press conference to mark the beginning of the 3rd Million Tree Campaign in Palestine | The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature
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العربية لحماية الطبيعة تعقد مؤتمراً صحفياً لتطلق حملتها الثالثة لزراعة مليون شجرة جديدة في فلسطين

In a press conference conducted at APN offices with the presence of more than 20 media institutions, APN president, Engineer Razan Zuayter announced the launch of the 3rd Million Tree Campaign in Palestine.

Zuayter stated that more than two million olive and fruit trees were planted in almost 105 dunums. Around 21 thousand farmers, supporting about 172 thousand individuals, benefitted from that. She added that APN looks forward to completing the plantation of the 3rd Million Trees in a period of time shorter than the previous campaign.

APN  Projects Manager , Eng. Mohammad Qtaishat referred to the Green Caravan Program that aims to plant hundreds of thousands of fruit trees to contribute tocombating desertification, enhancing food security and creating new sources of income for inhabitants of locally marginalized areas in Jordan. Around 50 thousand trees have been planted across the Kingdom since APN founded the Green Caravan. Qtaishat stated that APN had launched an awareness campaign two years ago under the title "If You Only Know" targeting school and university students. The campaign aimed to raise awareness of students on the importance of agriculture as well as ecological challenges in Jordan and the Arab World. APN presented 77 lectures targeting  1,620 students in more than 34 educational institutions.

APN Executive Manager, Mariam Jaja stated that, in continuation to its mission towards food sovereignty in the Arab World, APN played a major role in drafting global policies that affect peoples’ right to food and confronting environment violations in conflict zones. APN was nominated to represent civil society in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) which is the highest governmental platform that is tasked with drafting agriculture and food security policies APN established a global civil society group on food insecurity in conflictand it isworking currently to include the priorities of the region in the CFS Agenda for Action for addressing food insecurity and malnutrition in protracted crises.  

The main goal of these efforts is to integrate a human rights approach  and address root causes of food insecurity in conflicts.

Zuayter concluded that in order to accumulate Arab civil society efforts towards a unified vision, APN established the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty as a regional network with 76 Arab organizations focusing on agriculture and food security in the Arab World. The network includes several associations of farmers, fishermen, workers, women, youth, consumers and civil society organizations.