Land gazetted for tree planting

07 July 2010 , By The Star

The state government has identified 180ha of land for planting jungle trees as part of efforts to achieve its aim of setting up state parks.

Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said 24ha of land had been allocated to set up the Hutan Bandar Mutiara Rini.

“We will also be allocating land to plant jungle trees in various other areas in the state,” he said during the launch of the state landscape day at the Bukit Layang-Layang in Pasir Gudang here.

Abdul Ghani explained other identified areas to plant the jungle trees include 40ha in Bandar Indahpura Kulaijaya, 20ha in Pasir Gudang, 32ha in Taman Teknologi Tinggi Senai and 64ha in Taman Linear.

He also said the ‘One Citizen, One Tree’ programme should be adopted in all the ten districts in the state in order to achieve the country’s goal of becoming a Garden Nation by 2020.

“We have already started severaltree planting initiatives and we have to continue doing it for the generation to come,” he said.

He added the state was serious about its green efforts with several agencies including the Forestry Department, Depart-ment of Environment, Landscape Department, Taman Negara and local councils involved in planting activities.

Abdul Ghani said besides the allocated plots of land for planting trees, the state government had set a condition to housing developers to reserve 10% of the development to plant trees.

“We have also ordered industrial areas to take the same measures to plant trees to display a conducive environment in their respective areas,” he said.

He added all these efforts were to ensure the people themselves were provided with a green and healthy environment.