Hamden (fourth left) and others show the seed balls which they will plant at the location.
MIRI (Oct 9): A total of 14.5 million trees have been planted by Sarawak Forest Department since the Greening Sarawak programme was launched last year, exceeding the target of seven million trees planted annually.
Its director Datu Hamden Mohammad said up to June this year alone, they have planted over four million trees.
“The ‘Greening Sarawak’ tree planting campaign is in line with the Greening Malaysia Programme which targets to plan 100 million trees from 2021 to 2025.
“From the 100 million trees, we in Sarawak will plant 35 million (in five years), meaning that we must plant at least seven million trees each year.
“Last year a total of 10 million trees were planted and up to June this year, we have already planted four million trees. This means that we have passed our annual target,” he said in his address at a tree planting programme held in conjunction with Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Month 2022 in Bakam here on Friday.
If the tree planting trend continues, Hamden said there would be plenty of trees growing in Sarawak within five to 10 years.
He added thatthe department had also used seed balls, drone and ‘seed ball blaster’ to expedite the planting process.
“We are still looking at other methods to enable us to plant more trees because we have a big area with challenging topography. We need extra mechanism to do it,” he said.
Director of Sarawak Service Modernisation Unit (SSMU), Michael Ronnie Langgong was also present at the function.