Time to get back to all those trees we asked you about in our Geo Quiz. Last year, a UN meeting on climate change in Kenya called for the planting of a billion trees to tackle deforestation. The head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Richard Odingo, challenged Africa to lead the initiative:

"What we need is really an all-out effort to encourage the planting of trees. Any African country which can plant millions and millions of trees and let them survive should do so!"

Today the UN Environment Program reported the mass tree planting initiative hit its marks. So far, an estimated 1.5 billion trees have been planted around the world. More than 700 million trees were planted in Ethiopia. Environmentalists say High demand for fuel wood and grazing land in Ethiopia had taken a huge toll on its forests. Mexico also came in for praise...having planted more than 200 million trees. Turkey, Kenya and Cuba each planted 100 million. China and Spain are soon expected to announce new plantings of millions of trees.

Indonesian map

But it's Indonesia that's in the spotlight today...the South East Asian country is the answer to our Geo Quiz.

Environmentalists say the country has the fastest rate of deforestation of any country in the world. But today Indonesia tried to push the bar up even higher on the UN's global tree planting initiative. It mounted a campaign to plant close to 80 million trees in one day. Today.

President Yudhoyono declared the trees a gift to the world

The Indonesian president (President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) said the show of planting force proved his country was serious about the environment. Indonesian conservationists welcomed the tree-planting drive, but some including Fitrian Ardiansyah said more needs to be done to preserve existing forests:

"We are doing very good in planting the trees but what will be next the post planting mechanism so the planting can be sustained? If the govt could also show that it can address deforestation in the first place I believe the majority people will salute the government more."

Still Indonesia's planting frenzy was welcome news in a country that's often in the headlines for illegal logging and the rampant destruction of its forests. Today was a day devoted to planting trees. Trish Anderton has this report from Jakarta.

The plan called for volunteers and government employees to plant 1,000 trees simultaneously at 79,000 locations across Indonesia. A government spokesman has said it may be the largest single tree-planting effort in history.

Indonesian Muslim women plant a sapling during a tree-planting campaign in Jonggol, West Java, 28 Nov 2007

The effort was timed for maximal public attention, coming less than a week before a UN sponsored meeting on climate change in Bali. But Wandojo Siswanto of the Indonesian Forestry Department insists it's a serious move to combat global warming, not just a publicity stunt.

SISWANTO: "This is meant as a concrete effort in the scheme to increase carbon absorption."

Siswanto says the types of trees, including mahogany, sandalwood, and fruit trees, were chosen to benefit local people. When it comes to planting trees, Indonesia has some catching up to do. According to an estimate from Greenpeace, the country's losing nearly four and a half million acres of forest per year, mostly to illegal logging, palm oil plantations, and fires. The government hopes to come away from the Bali climate conference with funding to protect its remaining forests.

At a planting today at the University of Indonesia, just south of Jakarta, music blared from a public address system. The song by Iwan Fals, Indonesia's answer to Bob Dylan, proclaims: "There's a tree in my heart, there's a tree in your heart."

After planting her tree under a blazing sun, University of Indonesia public health student Tia Yuliandari said she was happy to help re-green her country.

YULIANDARI: "It's already very hot here. The issue of global warming has intensified in the last few days, and I think it's something we really need to be concerned about, you know?"

Environmental groups had a less enthusiastic response. While they praised the tree-planting effort, they called on the government to follow it up with serious action to protect the forests it already has. For the World, I'm Trish Anderton in Jakarta.