Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Earth Day Network Partner for Avatar Home Tree Initiative - A Global Effort to Plant One Million Trees to Honor TCFHE Debut of Avatar

The Avatar Home Tree Initiative, announced by director James Cameron on Earth Day April 22, 2010 in conjunction with the debut of the Avatar Blu-ray & DVD, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable development on six continents, while also increasing public recognition of the vital role that trees play in preserving life on Earth.

Each of the million trees planted under the Avatar Home Tree Initiative will be added to Earth Day Network’s Billion Acts of Green™, a campaign to reward and inspire simple individual acts as well as larger corporate, governmental and organizational acts with the goal of measurably reducing carbon emissions and supporting sustainability. Additionally, the trees planted in this initiative will be pledged towards the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign, a worldwide tree planting initiative facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The 17 projects were selected by Earth Day Network, after a four month vetting process, based on the strengths of each organization and the benefits they provide to local environments and people:

Australia
Landcare Australia will work with national parks and landcare groups to help restore vulnerable areas of metropolitan New South Wales and Victoria, focusing on areas with unique and threatened animal species.

Belgium
Vereniging voor Bos in Vlaanderen, or Organization for Forests in Flanders, will combat the environmental effects of intensive livestock and agricultural production by working with private landowners in Flanders to reforest their properties.

Brazil
To combat agricultural expansion and urban sprawl, SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation will work with local communities to plant native trees as a means to restore the Atlantic Forest, one of the most biologically diverse and severely threatened forest ecosystems in the world.

Canada
Tree Canada has joined the Avatar Home Tree Initiative to restore 800 hectares (1,976 acres) of pine forest of southeastern Manitoba on land that was devastated by hurricane-force winds in 2005.

France
With its bi-cultural mission, Kinomé’s Trees & Life program will help 9- and 10-year-old children in southern France plant their own trees. For every tree the children plant in France, kids of the same age in Senegal will plant two trees, thus advancing global reforestation and intercultural awareness.

Germany         
The Berlin Energy Agency’s environmental youth organization, ClubE, will plant trees in southern Berlin as part of its mission to raise awareness among young people about sustainable development and lifestyles and to promote job opportunities for young people in the green economy.

Haiti
Trees for the Future, a U.S.-based organization that works with Haitian farmers to bring degraded lands back to productivity through the planting of beneficial trees, will work with communities to plant fruit and other native trees using sustainable agroforestry practices. Their work will help combat centuries of environmental degradation and natural disasters, including the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake.

Italy
The community and Municipality of San Giovanni in Persiceto have recently taken on the Cassa Budrie reforestation project. They will restore and preserve a local wetland and forest located on a major flood plain, helping to promote local water security and prevent oil erosion. Other objectives of the project are biodiversity recovery and the creation of a local carbon sink to combat global climate change.

Japan
To create a sustainable future, a tailored tree-planting project in a Japanese school will give students and teachers the opportunity to plant trees on their campus and engage in related environmental education and school greening activities.

Mexico
Sierra Gorda Ecological Group (SGEG) has been working since 1987 to protect the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, the most ecologically diverse protected area of Mexico. The SGEG will work with local communities and farmers to reforest both agricultural land and pristine forests. Local communities will also directly benefit as local watersheds are restored.

The Netherlands          
Stichting wAarde, or the Earth Value Foundation, will work with local youth to plant trees in areas around Amsterdam and Utrecht. The trees planted will not only engage youth and communities in learning about their local environment, but will also improve air quality, create healthier outdoor spaces and restore urban habitats for wildlife.

Spain
Plantemos Para el Planeta, or Trees for the Planet, ambitiously aims to reforest Spain by planting one tree for every Spaniard. The group will work to reforest the south-eastern Costa del Sol, which was ravaged by wildfire in 2009, and will also create recreation spaces for individuals to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Sweden
Under Sweden’s Skogen i Skolan, or Forest in School, program, children and their teachers go on excursions to plant spruce, pine, birch and beech trees in northeast Sweden with professional guidance and intensive environmental and reforestation education. 

United Kingdom
The UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe with only four percent native woodland cover. Leading woodland conservation charity, The Woodland Trust is encouraging community groups across the UK to transform their local area by planting more native trees for the benefit of local people, wildlife and the environment as part of the Trust's 'More Trees, More Good' campaign. Communities can apply for free tree packs and receive support via an online advice center.       

United States
New York City
MillionTreesNYC plants trees throughout New York City’s five boroughs, focusing on low- to middle-income communities to increase green spaces and improve urban environmental health for area residents. MillionTreesNYC will participate in the Initiative through their fall Reforestation Day’s city-wide tree plantings.

San Francisco
Since 1981, Friends of the Urban Forest has helped San Franciscans to plant and care for street trees and sidewalk gardens, thereby supporting the health and livability of the urban environment. The organization is currently focused on plantings in low-income neighborhoods, resulting in increased community interaction and cooperation.

Los Angeles
TreePeople is a Los Angeles based non-profit whose mission is to improve the urban environment of the city by planting trees. TreePeople’s Fruit Tree Program will provide low-income families, school children and community residents with a source of free fruit to help alleviate hunger, address childhood diabetes and obesity, improve nutrition, and provide shade, beauty and cleaner air now and for decades to come.

To help raise awareness and support for the initiative, Fox has created “The Avatar Program.” Through a unique code found inside the Avatar Blu-ray/DVD, fans will be able to adopt one of the one million trees being planted.