BATTAMBANG: The Battambang Provincial Administration organized a tree planting ceremony along a canal in Peam Ek village on July 17 to celebrate this year’s Arbor Day.

During the ceremony, 5,600 saplings were planted by Battambang provincial authorities on both sides of the 6,000-meter-long Daun Teav canal from the Daun Teav bridge to the front of Ek Phnom temple. Seedlings from a variety of hard and softwood trees were used.

Battambang Governor Sok Lou explained that Arbor Day was first organized in the Sangkum Reastr Niyum (Popular Socialist Community) era under the leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk when the Royal Government instructed provincial governors to plant trees every year.

Gov. Sok Lou said Arbor Day was a day to encourage tree planting which helps protect the environment and reduce natural disasters. Deforestation can lead to floods, windstorms, droughts and overheating. Without trees, he said, water resources could run dry and ponds, lakes, rivers and canals could no longer meet the needs of people, animals and plants.

He instructed citizens, monks, local authorities, the armed forces, and businesses to plant as many trees as possible. He especially encouraged planting palm trees in pagodas, public places, resorts, houses, fields, and farms as a barrier. They provide many benefits to people and wildlife and increase the fertility of agricultural land, absorb carbon dioxide and help prevent climate change.

He also instructed citizens and authorities to help prevent and stop deforestation, forest clearing, hunting, and illegal trapping of wild animals, and to participate in the protection of forests, especially in regard to preventing wildfires in areas where people live to protect forest resources for our children, this generation and the next.