ID :
265932
Tue, 12/04/2012 - 12:27
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/265932
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Ministry To Plant One Billion Trees In 2013
Palembang, S Sumatra, Dec 4 (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Forestry has set itself to plant some one billion trees in 2013, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said here on Tuesday.
"We have set a target of planting one billion trees in 2013," the minister said after planting a `rambutan` tree in the premise of the Hajj Boarding House here.
Zulkifli Hasan was here to attend the 17th Congress of Students Association of the country`s largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the 16th Congress of NU`s Female Students Association.
He said that his ministry had planted at least one billion of trees every year, even it always exceeded its target.
The minister said that the tree planting target in 2010 was one billion trees but the number of those successfully planted reached 1.3 billion.
The 1.3 billion trees excluded those planted by the public.
In 2011, the government also succeeded in planting 1.5 billion and up to October this year the number of trees already planted had reached 800 million.
The closing of the 2012 tree planting season will be in January next month because plantation is adjusted to planting season at the end of January instead of December, he said.
"We always exceed the target every year and we appreciate the Indonesian people because planting trees had become their life styles," the minister added.
He said that the number of trees planted this year was also expected to exceed the one billion target. "It will be counted at the end of January," the minister explained.
Zulkifli Hasan said planting trees had become a lifestyle and culture of the Indonesian people, where everywhere groups of people, students, mass organizations and media publications planted trees.
"We are confident that we have passed the most critical phase in the country`s critical forest era. We are now entering the era of restoring our forests. Of course we need time," he said.
He said that the funds needed to carry out tree planting programs this year amounted Rp2 trillion and in 2013 it was estimated at more or less the same as this year.