"The one billion tree-planting program has been running well. In the past three years, the realization of the program exceeded the target," Director General of Forestry Management Bambang Hendroyono said during a Go Green campaign at Gunung Pancar Tourism Park, West Java, on Sunday.
According to him, 1.3 billion trees were planted in 2010 and 1.5 billion trees in 2011. The number increased to 1.6 billion trees in 2012.
"The active participation of all layers of the community and institutions played an important role in achieving the target," he said.
Hendroyono said on the behalf of the Ministry he was optimistic that the tree-planting program would contribute to environmental conservation and prevent natural disasters, such as flood and landslide.
"We also have set ourselves the target of planting 1.5 billion trees in 2013," he said.
Meanwhile, the 4th Go Green campaign, co-hosted by the Forestry Faculty of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and the Forestry Ministry was attended by around 400 participants, such as IPB students, local high-school students and environmentalists.
"This campaign is aimed at promoting students` and the public`s environmental awareness as well as at supporting the government`s one billion tree-planting program," chairman of the event`s organizing committee Hezlisyah Siregar said.
The campaign was also held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of IPB, he said.
About 6,000 trees were planted and tree seedlings were distributed among the local people during the campaign.
"This campaign is also part of the efforts to restore the upstream regions and prevent the downstream areas from flood threat," Siregar said.
Also present at the campaign were some officials from the West Java and Bogor administrations.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
