SIBU: Sarawak has hit the 29.2 million mark in its target of planting 35 million trees by 2025 under the Le Tour De Restoration (LTDR) Greening Sarawak Campaign 2.0 programme which began in 2021.
"To date, Sarawak has managed to record the highest number of plantings among states in Malaysia with 29,295,293 trees," state Forest Department director Datuk Hamden Mohammad said here on Monday (Oct 9).
Speaking at the launch of the Sibu leg of LTDR at the University of Technology Sarawak (UTS), he said Sarawak boasted the largest forested areas in Malaysia at 7.67 million hectares, which is 62% of the state's total land size of 12.44 million hectares.
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This made it the largest contributor to forest cover in the country, at 44%.
The state's largest forest is located in the Permanent Forest Reserve which covers 3.9 million hectares, he added.
Hamden said according to the summary of the 2021 Auditor-General's Report Series 2 issued on Jan 6 this year, forests in Sarawak have been managed sustainably to provide socio-economic benefits and maintain the surrounding environment.
"In order to ensure that forest cover is balanced with development programmes, various initiatives have been implemented by the department such as the Forest Landscape Restoration Programme (FLR) which was launched on June 15, 2019," he noted.
In line with the Greening of Malaysia agenda through the 100 Million Tree Planting Campaign (2021-2025), the department had rebranded the FLR to "Greening Sarawak", he said.
This involved expanding the scope of coordinating tree planting in urban areas, on state land and in schools, among others.
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Hamden said LTDR 2.0 was a way of attracting the public to actively engage in the greening campaign.
The tour kicked off at Taman Rimba Sebangkoi on Sept 23 and continued to Bintulu, Miri, Lawas, Kapit and Sibu.
From here, it will move on to Betong and culminate in Kuching.
Sixty Belian trees, the official tree of Sarawak, will be planted in each tour location to symbolise Sarawak's 60th year of independence.
In Sibu, the Forest Department has also contributed 60 high-value native trees of various species to be planted around the UTS campus such as meranti, selangan, engkabang, nyatoh ketiau, ramin and gaharu.
