KUALA LUMPUR: More than 73.2 million trees have been planted nationwide so far through the 100 Million Tree Planting Campaign implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change (NRECC).

Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) deputy director-general (Research) Dr Norwati Muhammad said the campaign was a greening programme aimed at maintaining and increasing green cover in the country.

"The five-year campaign, which started in 2021, also aims to increase public awareness of the importance of maintaining green cover and forests and to encourage them to be actively involved in increasing the number of trees," she told Bernama.

She said the campaign was also to support the government's commitment to protect and maintain 50 per cent of the forest area in the country, thus preserving the balance of the forest ecosystem in Malaysia.

To make the campaign a success, Norwati said FRIM organizing various courses, seminars and talks with experts on topics related to forestry science to increase public awareness of the importance of forests and environmental protection.

The topics included 'No mangrove, no seafood?'; 'What to do when your plant is sick?'; 'Tree planting: With or without soil' and 'Red Alert: Plant conservation, she said.

According to Norwati, FRIM also offers free trees to participants attending its courses, talks and seminars, which are also held at the international level in conjunction with forestry-related celebrations.

Meanwhile, she said schools, agencies and corporate bodies that wish to obtain saplings for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes can do so by applying to the Director General of FRIM.

"So far, a total of 2,700 trees have been donated to individuals, schools, companies and universities, as well as corporate bodies," she added.

Regarding the 100 Million Tree Planting Campaign by NRECC, she said, it was also supported by the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia, FRIM and Yayasan Hijau Malaysia (YHM).

"FRIM's responsibility in the campaign is to lead the Technical Committee which consists of a combination of various quarters from government agencies and institutions of higher learning," she said.

Besides holding various courses, seminars and talks, the technical committee is also responsible for verifying tree species planted by individuals who are registered with the Greening Malaysia mobile application.

According to her, 200 publications have been released in the form of articles, videos and infographics to increase and spread awareness in the community about greening which are uploaded on social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and X

-- BERNAMA