HispanicBusiness

TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 03/20/13 -- From the Sydney Opera House to Table Mountain, The Petronas Towers to The Brandenburg Gate, and The Tokyo Tower to The Empire State Building - a long list of the most recognisable icons across the globe will be participating in Earth Hour 2013 this Saturday March 23 at 8:30PM, as the world's largest movement for the planet celebrates the environmental outcomes generated by its participants around the world.

More than 150 countries and territories will be participating; Palestine, Tunisia, Galapagos, Suriname, French Guyana, St. Helena and Rwanda are among those joining the global movement for the first time in 2013.

The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore's Marina Bay Sands, The Tokyo Tower, Taipei 101, The Bird's Nest in Beijing, The Gateway of India, the world's tallest building The Burj Khalifa, the Ancient Citadel of Erbil in Kurdistan, Table Mountain, The Bosphorus Bridge, The Statue of David, The Eiffel Tower, The Brandenburg Gate, The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, The UK Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, The Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, Los Angeles Airport (LAX) are some of the key landmarks participating in 2013.

Not only is Russia joining in the symbolic show of support for Earth Hour with around 100 landmarks switching off across 50 cities and towns, its citizens have led the way for Earth Hour showing how they can positively impact the world we live in when WWF-Russia collected 120,000 signatures for a petition to pass a long-awaited law to protect the country's seas from oil pollution last year. The petition, which was part of Earth Hour's 'I Will If You Will' campaign, was then presented to the government and became instrumental in the passing of that law in the Russian parliament.

"Russia has considerably raised the bar for Earth Hour and has become a shining example of the incredible environmental outcomes that can be achieved when people work together and take action beyond the hour," said Andy Ridley, CEO and Co-Founder of Earth Hour.

It's not only in Russia that conservation outcomes are being achieved through the Earth Hour movement. In Uganda, the first Earth Hour Forest was created as an important first step in the fight against the 6,000 hectares of deforestation that occurs in the country every month. WWF Uganda identified close to 2,700 hectares of degraded land, and set a goal to fill it with at least 500,000 indigenous trees as part of their Earth Hour 2013 campaign.

In Botswana, former President Mr Festus Mogae has made a four-year commitment to plant one million indigenous trees as part of his 'I Will If You Will' challenge and kicked it off by planting 100,000 trees in a severely degraded area in Southern Botswana called Goodhope.

The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada will also dim its lights for the sixth year after the city was the second to ever come on board for the campaign. Canada's Vancouver has also been announced as the Global Earth Hour Capital in the Earth Hour City Challenge, for its overall holistic and strategic approach to climate action.