The Foundation in association with The Orbis Pictus Trust and ANIA is embarking on a pilot scheme in Peru which is an extension of The Children’s Forest and Children’s Lands projects which we piloted since the late 1990s. Those schemes and their associated manuals were translated into three languages and placed open access on the web encouraging youngsters to take and interest in nature and safeguarding the environment. The projects were a notable success being recognised by UNESCO and being awarded prizes and spread across S. America.
The new pilot project compliments The Children’s Lands. It aims to denote mature and aged trees across Peru as ‘Mother trees’ based on the figure of MESHI, the talking tree representing mother earth in the illustrated cartoon series which illustrated the previous projects across S. America and in the fairy tale book NATURE’S GREATEST GIFT – THE CHILDREN’S LANDS [accessible here: http://www.thematthiesenfoundation.org/docs/565b778175b64.pdf]. MESHI has always figured in the ANIA logo. We have a goal that by end of 2021 every province of Peru will have a monumental tree declared as a symbol of a change of consciousness towards sustainability! We are losing forests, but we cannot afford to lose mother trees! The trees will serve as a reminder and monument towards environmental sustainability. An illustrated children’s book about MESHI and the ‘Mother trees’ is in the future pipeline.
The aim is now to create a website that includes, a) information and steps for local governments to declare trees as natural monuments, b) a geo-referencer for the location of the trees, c) Images and information of every tree declared, and d) a section for children with information about mother trees. In the future the aim is to have a marked tree/monument or local MESHI in each and every province totalling some 2000 trees but the initial stage is for 196 trees.
The accompanying illustration shows MESHI and the first eight ‘Mother trees. The accompanying PDF in Spanish is the proposed plan as agreed with the Peruvian Ministry.