The vast tree planting operation launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries on the occasion of National Tree Day exceeded all expectations. The target was surpassed with nearly 1.4 million trees planted across the country.
According to Djamel Touahria, Director of the General Directorate of Forests (DGF), the national reforestation campaign, organized throughout the country’s provinces, exceeded the set goal of planting one million trees in just 24 hours. The operation resulted in planting more than one million trees. “More than 1.39 million trees have been planted,” he stated this Sunday during his appearance on National Radio, highlighting civil society’s involvement. “The operation was a success. These results were achieved thanks to widespread enthusiasm and strong participation from citizens, associations, as well as effective cooperation between the state and civil society,” emphasized Mr. Touahria. The unprecedented popular enthusiasm across the different provinces reflects, according to the director of the DGF, “a growing environmental awareness among citizens in the face of the dangers of climate change, desertification, and global warming.”
This operation can thus be described as a first of its kind, given its scale and national reach. This is precisely what Lamya Haider, Deputy Director of Reforestation and Nurseries at the DGF, confirmed, calling it “an unprecedented ecological initiative.” She added that it reflects “a strong political will to restore natural ecosystems, combat desertification, and raise public awareness about environmental protection.”
Highlighting the objectives of this initiative, namely strengthening vegetation cover, restoring degraded natural areas, combating desertification and the effects of climate change, preserving biodiversity, improving the quality of life for populations, and establishing an ecological and civic culture through collective participation in reforestation, she noted that the DGF mobilized all necessary resources.
“To ensure the success of this vast tree planting operation, the General Directorate of Forests mobilized significant human and material resources,” Ms. Haider noted. Forest engineers, technicians, and forest agents distributed across all 58 provinces were mobilized, in addition to the participation of local authorities, environmental associations, schools, and volunteer citizens, in a spirit of national mobilization, according to the Deputy Director of Reforestation and Nurseries at the DGF.
Large material resources were also mobilized, notably including the provision of more than one million rustic forest and fruit seedlings and ornamental plants produced in the DGF nurseries, which also provided all-terrain vehicles, planting equipment, agricultural tools, mechanized means for hard-to-reach areas, as well as water supply for irrigating these plants.