The World Map of Peace or World Peace Map, abbreviated as well the Map of Peace, was created to unify the individual plantings of the Trees of Peace in different countries of the world and give them a clear goal: to involve as many countries as possible into the planting of Trees of Peace and thus gradually supplement the Map of Peace.
The International Tree of Peace was founded in 2018 in Slovakia and its main goal is the promoting a message of peace through the planting of at least one Tree of Peace on every continent. The project was originally associated with the centenary of the end of the First World War. It has since evolved to having a more general focus of promoting ideas of peace and friendship amongst nations and spreading an ecological message through the planting of trees as a symbol of peace and remembrance with a respect to nature. The project is increasingly focused on sustainable development, one of the guarantees of sustainable peace. The tree planting as a symbol of growth and development points not only to the futility of military conflicts, but also to the senseless plundering of nature in all its spheres – on land, in the oceans or air pollution. Because also wars and riots bring great environmental burdens and destroy human destinies.
The symbol of the Map of Peace is an evergreen tree, in botany also known as an evergreen (Latin binomial term sempervirens), thus such a plant which has foliage (needles) that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season. The evergreen plant has great connection and symbolism with a sustainable peace, which should not alternately “fall” and then “sprout” again like some deciduous trees, but should be as stable and continuous as evergreen plants thus always and still present.
The World Map of Peace was created symbolically on Earth Day, April 22, 2021 in Slovakia by a symbolic planting of a coniferous tree in Carl Gustav Swensson Park in Žilina.
By the end of May 2024, there are 21 countries on the World Peace Map: Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, India, Liechtenstein, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Austria, Romania, (Russia*), Slovakia, United States of America, Serbia, Tonga , Uzbekistan, Great Britain, Italy, Slovenia and Cyprus.
*Although the Tree of Peace initiative is a strictly apolitical initiative, NGO Servare et Manere, as the bearer of this idea, condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The organization categorically condemned the evils and injustices and gross violations of international law and the principles of the UN Charter. In 2018 and 2021, the ideas of the Tree of Peace were also implemented in the Russian Federation. At present, Russia is missing from the World Peace Map.
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