100 million tree-planting campaign: Terengganu targets planting 330,000 saplings this year

MARANG, Oct 28 -- The Terengganu Forestry Department hopes to achieve planting about 330,000 saplings this year to contribute towards making the 100 Million Tree-Planting Campaign a success.

Its director, Roslan Rani said he was confident of achieving this target since to date, a total of 276,351 saplings, comprising various species, had been planted throughout the state.

"This tree-planting initiative has also received the cooperation of various government and private agencies including the Agriculture Department and MARDI (Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute).

''We have planned several other tree-planting programmes until the end of the year and are confident of  reaching the 330,000 target,'' Roslan told Bernama after tree-planting activities held in conjunction with the "Peat Swamp Forest Awareness, General Dissemination and Conservation in Permanent Forest Reserves in Terengganu" programme, at the Jambu Bongkok Forest Reserve, here, today.

Meanwhile, Roslan called on Terengganu residents to register on the Greening Malaysia application, a platform that uploads information on trees that have been planted to realise the government's efforts to plant 20 million trees yearly in the 100 Million Tree-Planting Campaign 2021-2025.

“The application can be downloaded on mobile phones to allow anyone to register after planting a tree. Therefore, I urge Terengganu residents to download this application even though they may only plant a tree in their house compound and so on.

''If every household is registered in the application, I believe we can achieve planting 400,000 to 500,000 trees,” he said.

Roslan also said that the tree-planting activity held today saw some 1,600 saplings being planted in a five-hectare area in the Jambu Bongkok Forest Reserve.

"Among the species of saplings planted included shorea materialis, hopea odorata and syzygium spp. There is still space to plant more saplings in the forest reserve and we plan to plant another 2,000 saplings.”

Also present were State Forestry Department deputy director Azni Rahman A. Wahid and Kampung Jambu Bongkok Pantai development and security committee chairman Nasimudin Abdul Wahab.

-- BERNAMA