Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that its 23 domestic and overseas production locations will participate in the tree-planting campaign "Green Wave 2011" to take place in conjunction with the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22.

"Green Wave" is a tree-planting campaign advocated by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the United Nations (UN). As part of the broad effort to preserve biological diversity and allow sustainable use of its components, trees are planted annually, all around the world, at 10 a.m. on May 22, designated the International Day for Biological Diversity. Supporting this activity, the Japanese government has designated from March 1 through June 15 as "Green Wave 2011." The government is encouraging schools, companies, local public bodies, etc., to carry out tree-planting campaigns, including supplying seedlings and providing tree-planting sites. Last year, more than 110,000 people from 1,588 organizations participated in the campaign, planting approximately 254,000 trees.

Yokohama Rubbers will plant a total of 13,000 trees at eight domestic and overseas locations, while 15 production sites will cultivate seedlings and care for the trees that have been planted so far. Yokohama Rubber took part in Green Wave last year, too. A total of 2,064 participants planted 20,441 trees at that time.

In addition, the Yokohama Forever Forest Project was started in 2007 and is creating forests at domestic and overseas production sites in anticipation of the company's 100th anniversary in 2017. Under the guidance of Dr. Akira Miyawaki, professor emeritus of Yokohama National University and a plant ecologist, Yokohama Rubber has been planting trees indigenous to each local area - about 183,000 trees in Japan and overseas as of March 31, 2011. The company also affirmatively provides seedlings raised by its employees to administrations, schools and other companies, further highlighting to society the importance of preserving the global environment.