Dept aims to plant four million trees in Johor

MUAR: The Johor Forestry Department is targeting to plant four million timber trees in the state by the end of 2025 with public participation.

Its director Datuk Salim Aman said the tree planting activities would be in line with the Greening Malaysia Programme which began in 2021 to create awareness on the need for a permanent forest.

He said at the same time, the department was also targeting to plant one million trees by the end of 2022.

“For a start, this year, we will involve the younger generation comprising Skudai Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) students so that they can become catalysts to the community in maintaining greenery and planting trees.

“Apart from planting trees, the students would also be introduced to several forest tree species such as meranti, kempas, kundang hutan, saga and kasai,” he told Bernama after the ‘2022 Green Earth New Year Resolution’ ceremony under the Green Malaysia Programme via 100 million Tree-Planting Campaign at Compartment 8 of the North Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve on Saturday.

The programme, which saw 500 forest trees planted, was carried out with the cooperation of UTM and local EcoNinja volunteers, and attended by UTM Institut Sultan Iskandar deputy director Dr Robiah Suratman.

Salim said people and organisations or government agencies who wanted to participate in the programme could register online.

“Registration could be made via the smartphone app and its website by typing Greening Malaysia and uploading the picture of timber trees planted.

“We are also giving special prizes to those who plant the most trees in the programme,” he said.

UTM student Muhammad Asyraf Hilmi Salim, 24, said they could apply the knowledge acquired from the programme in class.

“I got to know more about forest trees and most importantly, I was planting them in the forest.

“This is an experience that could not be obtained elsewhere.”