President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will launch a tree planting campaign in Jonggol, West Java, on November 28 to promote reforestation efforts, ANTARA reported. On that day a total of 79 million trees would be planted in 78,433 locations in various provinces in the country, forestry minister`s expert staff Suharto said in Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi, on Wednesday. He said 1,000 trees would be planted in each of the locations started by President Yudhoyono. He said reading the written address of forestry minister MS Kaban at the opening of a program to familiarize the campaign that 10,000 of the trees would be planted by women to demonstrate their care about forest rehabilitation. Destruction of the country`s forests which are the world`s third largest has been going on at an alarming rate. A total of 356,295.66 hectares of forests in Southeast Sulawesi are at present in a very critical condition while 913,716.79 hectares others are in fairly critical condition. In view of that the location has been chosen for the tree planting program. In charge of Sampara catchment area control, Agung Raka, said illegal logging was among among the causes of the critical condition of the forests in the regions.
