KUCHING: More than 200 Rainforest World Music Festival performers, foreign media, and students took part in the Sarawak Tourism Board’s (STB) tree planting ceremony yesterday.
A total of 150 Golden Shower tree seedlings were planted around the Bangunan Baitulmakmur lake compound.
Assistant Minister of Tourism Datuk Gramong Juna said STB’s programme to offset the festival’s carbon footprint was an example for all to emulate.
“Sarawakians are proud to have the world’s oldest tropical rainforests and they along with our efficient sustainable forest management are valuable tourism assets and a legacy we are but custodians of,” he said, adding that the state had 1.2 million hectares of protected forests including national parks and wildlife centres.
He acknowledged that the Rainforest World Music Festival has made a name for itself over the years to become an international phenomenon that has put Sarawak on the world tourism map.
Gramong, who is also Assistant Minister of Land Development, added that he hoped the programme would pave the way for the young people to grow with the trees they planted and in turn safeguard their ‘green treasure’ for their children’s children.
Meanwhile, STB chief executive officer Datuk Rashid Khan said the tree planting ceremony represented an opportunity for all present to protect Borneo’s greenery as one of its most precious national treasures.
“This initiative also extends to the festival itself where we encourage the vendors to use green products and practices and even to the provision of shuttles from the city to the venue, in our effort to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles,” he said.
Once the flowers bloom in future, he said, the trees would be covered in golden yellow.