Macedonia seeds hope in 5 million new trees
The tiny Balkan country greets spring – and safeguards the environment – with a massive reforestation initiative.
By Chris Deliso | 03.15.09
SKOPJE, Macedonia – Campaign season has arrived in Macedonia, with presidential and municipal elections next Sunday. Nevertheless, the locals made time for the third installment of the “Day of the Tree” initiative that began last March to help reforest this small Balkan country and raise ecological awareness.
On that first showing a year ago, more than 150,000 Macedonians planted 2 million trees in one day (symbolically, one for each citizen). Six million more were planted in November. Saturday’s event saw a combined 5 million trees planted nationwide by a diverse network of volunteers.
The Tree Day’s leader is Boris Trajanov, a world-renowned opera singer. “Our primary goal with this initiative is to create a greener Macedonia and to help our planet,” he said, while heading to the planting site of Ajvatinovski Rid, a dramatic ridgeline in the northeast. Along the way, schoolchildren giggled and waved and asked for more Tree Day buttons and flags.
“The kids are crazy for this!” beamed Mr. Trajanov, a father-of-three. “I love to see this side of it also – the people really enjoy being out in the fresh air, and having fun planting trees.”
About the size of Vermont, Macedonia boasts similar mountains, lakes, and verdure – but with much more litter. Building ecological awareness for future generations is an important part of the tree planting event, said Dutch Ambassador to Macedonia, Simone Filippini, speaking at another planting site just outside the capital, Skopje.
“The natural environment is the prime source of Macedonia’s beauty, and of its future tourism potential,” the ambassador said. “We hope this event will help build consciousness among Macedonians, to appreciate the beauty of what they have, to take care of it, and to teach their kids to do so, as well.”
Also helping out with a shovel at the site was Macedonia’s top diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Milososki. He’s been kept busier than most European statesmen of late because of Macedonia’s peculiar predicament: its name. Neighboring Greece, which itself has a province named Macedonia, refuses to allow the country to join NATO, even under the “provisional name” agreed under UN auspices in 1995 – the unwieldy “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.” (The Monitor wrote about the issue in-depth here)
At the Bucharest NATO summit last April, then-President Bush and other world leaders were dismayed when Greece blocked Macedonia’s invitation, despite the fact that Macedonia had fulfilled all the technical criteria and already was contributing troops to US missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Domestically, Greece’s hardening stance has made it politically difficult for its own leaders to step back from a position that European Parliamentarian Charles Tannock recently stated was “bringing Greece into ridicule,” due to Athens’ sworn veto on Macedonia’s European Union aspirations so long as the country does not change its name.
Nevertheless, Minister Milososki remains patient. He’s also proud of how the Tree Day initiative has facilitated interactions between Macedonia’s sometimes fractious ethnic populations. “Tree Day is a uniting action, and investing in ecology is investing in our common future,” he said. Indeed, a major goal of Tree Day leader Trajanov’s team is to involve other Balkan countries in the next mass planting, scheduled for fall. So far, Montenegro has shown particular interest. Is there any interest from Greece?
The minister is sanguine. “I would be very happy in the future to plant a tree together with my Greek colleagues, on our common border,” Milososki said. “We could name it as the ‘tree of Greek-Macedonian friendship.’”
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2. Georgio | 03.16.09
A big hardy BRAVO to the Macedonian People!
Here is hoping it starts a trend and other countries do the same.
3. Paco Verin | 03.16.09
Dear CSM:
Thank you for printing this inspiring and important story. There is plenty of good news all around the world. Keep it coming.
Sincerely,
Paco Verin
4. Maria | 03.16.09
This is a great action undertaken from the Macedonians! Congratulations for the Tree Day!
Best regards, Maria
5. John | 03.16.09
Congradulations to Macedonian People.
Whole World should follow.
Visit Macedonia if you have a chance. It is amazing country.
John B.
6. john | 03.16.09
Congratulations to our friends from Skopje for the plant tree.However,i believe that the Greek stance on the political matter is correct and wise.Its not Greece’s fault that the country failed to gain membership in NATO and latter to EU.The fault is of the political leadership of this country and especially of PM Gruevski who sadly has invested his political future in nationalism and pseudo-patriotism.
7. Oliver | 03.16.09
This is a proof that small countries can achieve great deeds. Bravo for the Republic of Macedonia !
8. Darren | 03.16.09
Kudos to the Macedonians! And ‘’shame on you” for all the comments to this article that attempt at polluting this humble action with the Greek obsessive, irrational and very dangerous policy towards its tiny neighbour up in the north.
9. Jason Miko | 03.16.09
Thoughtful article which articulates both the facts about Greece’s position toward Macedonia as well as the fact that there are more and more good things happening in Macedonia that need to be documented and told. Boris Trajanov, and folks like him, deserve credit and respect for undertaking initiatives such as these. The world needs more people like him.
As regards the position Greece has adopted toward Macedonia, this story too, needs to be told and the facts laid out. Macedonia has met all criteria for NATO membership - something the NATO countries themselves agreed to at the NATO Bucharest Summit last April - and have earned their seat at the table. It is unfortunate however that Greece has decided to allow its domestic politics to cloud the NATO agenda and general security issues in the Balkans.
11. Jim | 03.16.09
Planting these trees is very positive but the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has very serious ethnic identity issues and now claim to be “ancient Macedonians”. They also appear to be engaging in hate and propaganda against Greek Macedonians. (Bipartisan bills HR300 and HR356 in the Senate and House) Everyone time someone hears someone from FYROM claim to be related to ancient Macedonians… people should compare the words to their own public officials a few years ago that claimed the opposite.
FYROM’s first President Kiro Gligorov (February 26, 1992)
“We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century (AD)… we are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians
Mrs. Ljubica Acevshka (January 22 1999)FYROM’S Ambassador in Washington,
“We do not claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great.”
There are 2 million Greek Macedonians that are having their national identity stripped from the them while the world plays politics with the Balkans.
Furthermore people have forgotten the words of the American government that helped Greece defeat communists threatening their nation. Many FYROM nationals then Yugoslav communists largely under the control of dictator Tito were responsible for murdering thousands of Greeks,
“the Government considers talk of Macedonian “Fatherland,” of Macedonian “national consciousness” to be unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic nor political reality, and sees in its present revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece.(circular Airgram Dec.26, 1944 Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr)
(i.e. The nations that continue to recognize FYROM as “Macedonia” are effectively implicating America in a past attempted ethnic cleansing)
12. Will Smith | 03.18.09
The Balkans breed paranoia, but very few of the paranoias quite match the one some Greeks have about the Republic of Macedonia. What’s going to happen? Skopje’s two tanks and one Ukrainian helicopter got you spooked? The fact that some people in Makedonija are just as nutty as the Greeks isn’t really relevant.
Face it: there are lots of Greek “Macedonians” (descendants of Armenians, Turks, Slavs–and Greeks) who have exactly the same claim to the name “Macedonia” that the people in Skopje have–they live there.
13. Balkan Girl | 04.06.09
Great initiative! We should do it in all Balkan countries in the same day the next year! Are we able to do it or we will still be victim of stupid political divides? I really hope that the common goal for greener nature, better eco-environment and overall greater life in the Balkans will prevail. Thanks Chris to calling the attention to such a good news - we are kind of sick of listening only negative news from this region. Once again, congratulations!
14. Alfred di Genis | 05.05.09
Schools in Skopje have maps on classroom walls showing the northern Greek province of Macedonia as “occupied territory” as do maps in textbooks and military manuals. Skopje Government speeches, national monuments and symbols persistently represent that Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, really belongs to Slav Macedonia, is occupied by Greece, and will one day be “liberated.”
It is these claims on the territory of another country, among other provocations, that convinced NATO to unanimously deny membership to the former Yugoslav republic and have equally convinced the European Union to reject the start of accession talks with the Slav republic until it resolves the name dispute with Greece as it is treaty-bound to do. Greece is asking for a geographical qualifier like “North” to distinguish the brand-new state with the expropriated name from Greece’s largest area. Greece no longer trusts the FYROM to keep to the provisional name as agreed to untill a resolution because Skopje has done everything it can to weasel around it.
Greece is also the new Slav republic’s biggest foreign investor. Nothing of this can be found in Mr. Deliso’s article, only the one-sided caviling that has drawn gratitude from the very people he praises to the sky without criticism. Not a word from a Greek side in this propagandistic little vignette that must have the government in Skopje squealing in delight.
16. Erik the reader | 09.07.09
It is good to read about helpful and healthy initiative which seeks to protect and enhance nature. As an idea Christian Science monitor should also look into the massive deforestation happening right now in Argentina thanks to the growing soy bean culture!
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1. Anonymous | 03.15.09
I’m a consistent reader of CS Monitor for the past 12 years. I have been turned off by the way this report depicts Greece’s stance on the Macedonian issue. Please read the full history of Macedonia. Be objective next time. That is all I ask.
Thank you.