“ HE plants trees to benefit another generation ,” said Roman poet Caecilius Statius . That was way back in 150BC , when there were a darned sight lot more trees than what there are now .

Take Spain for instance , where some people delight in saying that the country was once covered in a thick mantle of forest . A squirrel could climb a tree on the southern coast and leap from branch to bough all the way to the shores of the Basque Country . Delightful , but possibly a little exaggerated .

Then the Romans came , followed by the Moors and then the Christians . Now , Spain is a parched , yellowed nation , increasingly under threat from desertification .

But it is not just Iberia that has seen its trees felled and turned into furniture , paper and fuel to keep our furnaces burning .

Some have it that of the 1.6 billion hectares of forest that covered the earth pre-Industrial Revolution , less than half of that remains today .

And intensive farming is to blame , too . Cattle ranching is the leading cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest – home to one in ten of the world ’ s animal species . Since 1970 , 700,000 square kilometres of the rainforest has been lost to deforestation to make room for 57 million cows .

But it is not just the fact that a felled tree means that a monkey and a snake have to find a new home . There are also fears that large-scale deforestation could contribute to global warming . The Amazon acts as a “ carbon sink ,” absorbing carbon dioxide . But once the trees

The new trees will help stop desertification which is advancing at an alarming rate

are cut down , this absorption stops . Often the wood is burned , releasing carbon ; and the loss of forest cover can also lead to carbon release from the soil . Boffins at the Paulista State University in Brazil calculate that for every square metre of forest lost , 22,000 tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere .

But people are doing something to stop the rot , both here and abroad . Green group Ecologistas en Accion runs a regular tree planting initiative throughout Andalucía and Spain ( go to www . ecologistasenaccion . org for more information ) and , as reported in the Olive Press , the socialist government made it an election pledge last year to plant one tree for every citizen – that is 45 million give or take .

Madrid hopes this will give Spain a

Deforestation in Costa Rica

two-pronged attack in its bid to beat the effects of global warming . Firstly , the new trees will help stop desertification which is advancing at an alarming rate – 35 per cent of Granada ’ s land is fast eroding ; secondly , it is hoped that carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced as the new trees soak up an estimated 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 during a 30- year period .

Off-setting this is called . And Silva Tree is offering green investors the change to offset carbon credits and , at the same time , reforest swathes of Costa

Rica – the South American country which plays home to 5 per cent of the world ’ s total biodiversity .

“ Costa Rica is a biodiversity hotspot , and saving forest there is essential for the survival of countless plant and animal species ,” says Keren Katz , the marketing

director at Silva Tree .

The darkest days in the country ’ s forestry history were in the 1970s and 1980s , when the government allowed 765 square kilometres of rainforest per year to be felled . Today , after internal and external pressure , the forests have greater protection and only really have to contend with illegal logging .

“ Restrictions are now in place , but Costa Rica has lost around a quarter of its rainforest due to felling ,” she says . “ It is why a project like this is so important .”

The modus operandi of Silva Tree is simple and has attracted officials from august bodies such as the United Nations and leading environmental charities . For a down payment of 12,000 US dollars ( payment plans are available ), green investors “ buy ” a 5,000 square metre plot of land in a Costa Rican rainforest , upon which will be planted trees .

Reforested and maintained by local communities , each plot of land is worth 200 credits , which can then be sold on the voluntary carbon market .

For more information about how you can help , go to www . silvatree . com or see the advertisement on the back page