SIBU, Oct 10 — Sarawak has recorded the highest number of tree-planting among states in Malaysia, says Forest Department Sarawak director Datu Hamden Mohammad.

According to him, 29,295,293 trees have been planted in the state, as part of the goal to have 35 million trees planted by 2025 under the Le Tour De Restoration (Greening Sarawak 2.0) programme.

This was announced by him in his speech for the Sibu Division’s ‘Tree-Planting Programme’ at University of Technology Sarawak (UTS) yesterday.

Moreover, Hamden also highlighted Sarawak as having the largest forested area in Malaysia, covering 7.67 million hectares.

"This is equivalent to 62 per cent of the total 12.44 million hectares over Sarawak, and 44 per cent over Malaysia.

"The largest forested area is over the permanent forest reserves, covering 3.9 million hectares with the management under the responsibility of Forest Department Sarawak.”

Hamden said based on the Auditor-General (AG)’s Report 2021: Series 2 released on Jan 6 this year, the forests in Sarawak had been managed in a sustainable manner so as to provide socio-economic benefits to the people and maintain the sustainability of the surrounding environment.

"In ensuring that the forest coverage is balanced with the development programmes implemented, various initiatives have been carried out by the Forest Department Sarawak such as the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) Programme, which was launched on June 15, 2019.”

Adding on, Hamden also said his department had rebranded the FLR to ‘Greening Sarawak’, which involved expanding the scope of planting and coordinating this exercise in other areas such as state land sites, the urban areas, and also schools.

Moreover, he said each ‘Greening Sarawak’ tour location would be planted with 60 ‘Belian’ (local ironwood) — dubbed as the official tree of the state of Sarawak — in collaboration with various agencies.

"This also symbolise the celebration of 60 years of Sarawak’s independence.

"For the (Greening Sarawak 2.0) programme at Sibu regional level, apart from the purchased trees, the Forest Department has also contributed 60 high-value native trees of various species, to be planted in the UTS compund such as ‘meranti’, ‘selangan’, ‘engkabang’, ‘nyatoh ketiau’, ‘ramin’, and ‘gaharu’,” said Hamden. — Borneo Post Online