TAWAU: The Sabah Forestry Department is confident of achieving the target of planting 40 million trees within five years, in line with the campaign to plant 100 million forest trees in the country by 2025.
Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests (Operations), Musa Salleh, said the confidence was based on the success of planting 12 million trees throughout Sabah so far since the campaign started in 2021.
“This means that there are approximately 28 million trees left to be planted. We, in Sabah, are actually targeting six million trees to be planted in the period of 2021 to 2023.
“We have already exceeded the target and will increase it by 10 million trees in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
“We are confident that with the cooperation and involvement of all Malaysians in Sabah, whether long-term licensees like the sustainable forest license agreement, private companies and individuals, we will be able to achieve that target within the next two years,” he added.
According to him, records also show that individuals in Sabah actually contributed a lot to this campaign when there was an individual from Tawau who planted 500 trees.
According to him, so far, the campaign successfully planted 60 million trees throughout Malaysia.
Musa spoke to the media after officiating at a project to plant 100 million forest trees organised by the Sabah Forestry Department and Benta Wawasan Sdn Bhd (BWSB) at Ladang Keruing Benta Wawasan, recently. Also present was BWSB General Manager, Chu Chee Ming.
BWSB planted 50 teak trees at the programme to support the campaign to achieve the objective of maintaining green areas throughout the country, in addition to preserving and conserving forested areas.
He added that the species of trees planted depended on the suitability of the soil, however, prioritising local species such as wild trees.
He also saw the campaign as very significant for the people of Sabah to increase public awareness on the importance of trees and forested areas and foster a spirit of love for the environment.
“Like BSWB, their commitment to this campaign is very high because they themselves have a detailed plan in forest management. In fact, every year they are required to prepare an annual work plan regarding the target number of trees to be planted,” he said.
In the meantime, he welcomed the involvement of all parties, not only companies but individuals to jointly support the campaign to achieve the goal of 100 million forest trees planted nationwide by 2025.
Meanwhile, Chu said BWSB entered the third phase of the campaign since it was launched in January 2021.
“We have already planted 42.22 hectares with 26,920 tree seedlings from 2021 to 2022 and this year (2023), BWSB plans to increase by 20.44 hectares with a total of 13,286 forest trees planted.
“Meanwhile, the planting plan in 2024 and 2025 is 20.00 hectares each with 13,000 forest trees making the total number around 66,206 trees by 2025,” he said.
