KUALA SELANGOR: Almost 400 volunteers from various organisations both from the private and public sector joined hands and planted 1,000 trees at the Raja Musa Forest Reserve here as part of a campaign to prevent peatland fires.
The peatland forest fire and haze prevention campaign with the tagline "No Peat Fire, No Haze" was launched today (Feb 23) in conjunction with World Wetlands Day 2013 celebration which falls on Feb 2, each year.
The event was launched by Selangor state exco (tourism, consumer affairs and environment committee) Elizabeth Wong.
At the event, 500 'kelat paya' and 500 'tenggek burung' tree species were planted covering two out of the 73,000 hectares of the reserve.
This was part of the forest reserve's rehabilitation activity after a significant portion of the reserve were affected by fire during a drought last July.
Two canal blocks were also built to help restore a water table and prevent future fires.
Apart from these initiatives, the campaign introduced community based peatland forest fire prevention and fire-fighting demonstration to the locals living within danger of a peatland fire.
The volunteers included Global Environment Centre Sdn Bhd, Forestry Department Malaysia, Selangor Forestry Department, students from SMK Assunta and Kuala Selangor District Council.
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