More than 40,000 trees and shrubs have been planted across the kingdom at the end of the third stage of a national afforestation campaign.
Launched in October 2021 by the National Initiative for Agricultural Development (NIAD), the ‘Forever Green’ initiative aims to boost Bahrain’s green coverage and highlight its commitment to agriculture and biological diversity.
The third phase featured 47 afforestation projects, where 40,043 trees and shrubs were planted over an area of 14,243 square metres and 7,463 linear metres across the four governorates.
They were done in co-operation with the Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Ministry, the Supreme Council for Environment and the four municipalities.
The projects were carried out across 19 public sites including streets, gardens, walkways and coastal areas, 16 sites belonging to the Housing and Urban Planning Ministry and 12 sites belonging to public and private primary health care centres.
The majority of the projects (20) were carried out in the Southern Governorate, followed by the Capital Governorate (16), Muharraq Governorate (eight) and Northern Governorate (three).
It was launched under the directives of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and chairperson of the NIAD advisory council, and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.
NIAD secretary general Shaikha Maram bint Isa Al Khalifa extended her thanks to the government agencies, private organisations and civil societies who were involved in the latest phase.
“Their support and contributions to the project led to its success,” she said.
“It comes as part of the kingdom’s efforts to address challenges relating to climate change, and to fulfil the kingdom’s commitments to achieving zero carbon by 2060.
“The private sector especially has to be commended for their rapid response and great interactions at all levels with the Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Ministry and the four municipalities.
“We are looking forward to hopefully seeing more when the initiative’s fourth phase kicks off in October.”
The GDN reported in May that images posted on social media by the National Space Science Agency show that Bahrain’s efforts to increase green cover by planting trees and saplings are bearing fruit, with high-resolution ‘before and after’ images of Al Farooq Junction in Manama showing a 40 per cent increase in green coverage between 2019 and 2023.
The second phase of the campaign, held from October 2022 to June last year, resulted in the planting of 50,814 trees through 57 afforestation projects.
The GDN reported last year that Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Minister Wael Al Mubarak said that Bahrain was on track with its plans to double the amount of trees in the kingdom from 1.8 million to 3.6m trees by 2035.
nader@gdnmedia.bh
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