HULU LANGAT: Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Bhd (Angkasa) is committed to ensuring the success of the Greening Malaysia agenda by planting one million trees under the 100 Million Tree-Planting Campaign.

       Its president Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Fattah Abdullah said with the cooperation and strategic partnership of the Institute of Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Angkasa would achieve this within two years, starting this year.

       “Angkasa, as the apex body of the national cooperative movement recognised by the government, wants the involvement and collective efforts of 14,657 cooperatives with a membership of 7.1 million people to implement continuous tree-planting efforts.

       “This is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 which complements the needs of social, economic, education and political stability as well as concern for the environment,” he said yesterday at the pre-launching ceremony of “Greening Malaysia: Koperasi Prihatin Sejuta Pokok”.

       The event saw the planting of 312 forest trees of various types at the Sungai Lalang Forest Reserve site covering half a hectare here.

       Prof Datuk Dr Aishah Salleh, adviser to the National Association of Wives of Civil Servants and Women Civil Servants (Puspanita) at the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry, said the programme was vital as trees and forest ecosystems played vital roles in reducing climate change effects.

       “Natural disasters such as floods hit with varying scales of destruction as they are more frequent and involve large areas. Climate change is having increasingly adverse effects resulting in loss of lives and property.

       “Therefore, tree planting, forest conservation and reforestation are among the measures to address the effects of climate change and indirectly reduce the risk of natural disasters,” she said, reported Bernama.

       At the ceremony, Prof Aishah also planted a merbau tree (Malacca teak), the country’s national tree, as a symbolic gesture to celebrate 100 years of the cooperative movement.

       The Sungai Lalang Forest Reserve site is also a pilot study area for UKM to monitor and measure the carbon that has been stored in the soil, as well as to record the progress and growth of trees in degraded forest areas.