Bandar Seri Begawan - The Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources through the Forestry Department will organise a mass tree planting in conjunction with the World Forestry Day 2010 (WFD 2010), according to a press release from the Forestry Department.

The event, which will be launched on March 21, 2010, will involve the general public especially students, the future custodian of the forest resources. This annual event will be the part and parcel of the continuous public awareness programme organised by the Forestry Department, which aims to continuously inculcate the sense of responsibility and love to the nation's forest and nature.

To date there is positive response from the general public on environmental awareness ever since the WFD has been celebrated in the country for years. On the positive development, the country's active participation in the international multi-lateral environmental agreements has received full support from the general public.

The theme of WFD 2010 is "Forests: Source of Biodiversity Richness" or "Hutan: Sumber Kekayaan Kepelbagaian Biologi". It is in line with the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) target for 2010 to reduce the world's biodiversity loss due to unstoppable ecological degradation associated with the depletion of the world's forests.

As Brunei Darussalam is the 190th member of the CBD, the mass tree planting will be given more emphasis in the WFD 2010 celebration which will involve degraded sites within the four districts. Thus, this grand forest rehabilitation activity will send environmental message 4 the international communities and symbolise the 'national's strategic commitment to support the CBD 2010 target. Furthermore, the activity will further strengthen the forest and nature conservation policy, which is in par with the project implementation framework (PIF) of Brunei Heart of Borneo initiative.

Unlike previous years involving only students, all level of participants will be invited to join this activity at no cost and interested individuals, private sector, schools and government agencies are requested to contact the Forestry Department for the details of the activity.

Depending on the response of the general public, the department will allocate around 60,000 seedlings for the participants to plant throughout the year in 2010. This big number will figure out the national obligations to enrich and protect the world's biodiversity by offsetting the number of tree loss per annum in the world.