Netherlands to Begin Planting ‘Avatar’ Forest

A real “Avatar” forest will begin to be planted starting Wednesday in a local forest in Amsterdam.
Netherlands to Begin Planting ‘Avatar’ Forest
11/15/2010
Updated:
11/15/2010
A real “Avatar” forest, complete with wanderpaths and dreamplaces, will begin to be planted starting Wednesday in a local forest in Amsterdam.

The initiative for the “Avatar” forest comes from James Cameron, the director of the 2009 hit film of the same name. Cameron’s “Avatar” Home Tree Initiative aims to plant a million trees around the world using part of the $2.7 billion revenue from the movie.

Twentieth Century Fox, the Dutch National Forestry Commission, and the foundation wAarde (Worth Earth), a Dutch nature think tank, will start Wednesday with planting willow trees and futher planting is planned to begin April 2011.

The director of the wAarde Foundation, Thomas Van Slobbe, said this initiative was the opportunity to go a little further. The foundation’s joint research with the U.N., shows that nature is no longer present in the lives of many of today’s youth. Their relationship to it is mostly through virtual reality like movies or computer games, Van Slobbe told Dutch media.

“Many young people living in the city, do not cycle through the pasture to school, and by listening to their IPods, no longer hear the birds sing,” he said. “It appears that their view of nature [is] mainly by films and computer games. Virtual reality is an important part of their world.”

Van Stobbe stressed the “Avatar” forest will not become an amusement park, but a forest spanning 5 to 25 acres. The forest will consist of local trees like oak and willow, and will have winding paths covered with flowers and blueberry bushes, and dreamplaces. Young people will be asked to help design the project, and anyone can buy a tree for only 10 euro, (US$13.60).

Other countries where “Avatar” forests will be planted are the United States, Sweden, Spain, Mexico, U.K., Japan, Italy, Haiti, Germany, France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Belgium.