Department of Forestry announces plan to plant 10 million trees

Through the Greening Programme, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, aims to fast-track the planting of 10 million trees over the next five years.

Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Makhotso Sotyu made the announcement as she kicked-off the National Arbor Month campaign with a tree planting ceremony in Richards Bay on Wednesday, September 1.

“Every year we should aim to plant at least two million trees. This target is not only aimed at the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, but to the public in general, government departments, municipalities, public institutions, the corporates, non-government organisations, schools, institutions of higher learning and community-based organisations,” she said.

Sotyu encouraged South Africans to plant and conserve trees, emphasising their contribution to climate change mitigation.

This year’s National Arbor Month will be coordinated under the theme: Forest Restoration: A path to recovery and well-being.

The theme is adopted from the United Nations Collaborative Partnership on Forests and is congruent to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call for the planting of 10 million trees, for the next five years in South Africa.

In a statement, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said trees act as carbon sinks, they absorb the equivalent of roughly 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

“As highlighted by the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, forests and trees play a crucial role in reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” read the statement.