An important milestone in the Federal Environment Ministry's international nature conservation and climate protection policy has been reached. The so-called \"Bonn Challenge\" initiated by Germany to rebuild forests has succeeded in getting countries to pledge a total of 150 million hectares. The goal was reached yesterday at the first Bonn Challenge regional conference for Asia in Palembang, Indonesia. There, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka announced further contributions to forest reconstruction. In Bonn in 2011, on Germany's initiative, numerous countries agreed to restore 150 million hectares of destroyed forests worldwide by 2020.<\/p>\n
Environment State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth, who attended the conference on behalf of Germany, congratulated Alex Noerdin, Governor of South Sumatra Province and host of the regional conference: \"The Bonn Challenge has created incredible global momentum for forest restoration. When we launched the Bonn Challenge in 2011, no one could have imagined that we would reach the 150 million hectare target three years ahead of schedule. The encouragement that countries in the region here in Palembang have given to the Bonn Challenge, and that they are also using it for their national initiatives, shows that in 2011 we kicked off a groundbreaking development for global forest restoration with the Bonn Challenge.\"<\/p>\n