PM calls for greener Laos on World Environment Day Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh urged people to grow more trees and clean up towns in a message to mark World Environment Day on June 5. The prime minister said his objective was to make people aware of the kinds of actions that were needed to protect the environment. The slogan for this year's World Environment Day is “CO2, Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy”.
The theme aims to encourage people to reduce less carbon into the atmosphere and focuses on forest management as a tool to reduce greenhouse gases. “We need to plant more trees to help reduce global warming and climate change, because climate change is affecting people's living conditions around the world,” Mr. Bouasone said. “Climate change is a problem for many countries, especially developing countries. It is hard for poor people, who don't understand the effects of climate change, to adjust.
Climate change may increase poverty and affect sustainable development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.” Mr Bouasone said this year's World Environment Day slogan was important in helping people the world over to understand the environmental challenges they faced and to help each other protect the environment.
He said the government was supporting the participation of Lao people in activities to mark National Sanitation Year. The government has declared this year-long awareness campaign to help make cities green and clean by encouraging people to reduce the use of plastic bags and to recycle materials whenever possible.
“One million new trees will be planted each year in cities around Laos until 2020. This is government policy, along with support for improved garbage collection,” Mr Bouasone said. He also said it was necessary for individuals and private and state organisations to understand the importance of environmental conservation, because it was related to development, economic growth and the sustainable management of natural resources. “By planting more trees we will help to improve people's living conditions, increase forest cover to 70 percent of total land area by 2020, and preserve our rivers,” he said.
“It will also help to reduce air pollution emissions, especially greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide, which are the major causes of global warming.” “It is also important for each sector to continue education about the effects of climate change and to build strategic plans to solve the problem,” he said.
Sometimes I feel that our Lao people like to concentrate more on the formality, but not the outcome.
We are really proud that we can plant many trees every year. But, nobody cares of how many trees are keeping growing. Which means nobody takes care of the new trees aftter planting. So sad!!!
That seems to be something that we get used to already. That seems to be a Lao style.
cher PV , j`ai plante 150 pousses de rotins et une dixaine d`arbres fruitiers dans ma petite foret la semaine derniere, et je compte planter 250 autres ce weekend...des rotins biensur. bien le bonjour !
salut chiip wow, c'est super! tu as des photos? De mon coté, j'ai bien peur que mon projet ne démarre pas.. c'est un peu trop compliqué de gérer tout cela à distance... je verrais lors de mon prochain voyage si je peux démarrer quelque chose.
It seems to me the government keep asking the people to so something about the environment but what has the government itself do?
I dont think setting a goal to plant certain amount of tree by certain amount of time and asking the people to do it for the government can actually be qualify as the government way of doing something about it,
How about stop passing out permission to build countless dams, how about that lignite plant coming along? you know the one Thailand doesn't want to build it on their side of the border, how about those Chinese factories?
Locals observe Arbor Day for a healthy environment On a quiet Sunday morning, people across the country gathered to mark National Arbor Day and planted trees in a bid to restore greenery to the country and combat climate change. This year the government is paying particular attention to the event and has proclaimed 2008 ‘National Healthy Year', a senior official said on Sunday. In Vientiane , Standing Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad and Vientiane Mayor Dr Sinlavong Khoutphaythoune joined a crowd of people to plant trees at the new National Stadium, where the 25th SEA Games will be held next year. Dr Sinlavong said the government and Vientiane authorities had been promoting tree planting activities for many years in an attempt to build parklands as sources of fresh air and provide a healthy environment. “The city's development must go hand-in-hand with ensuring that citizens are healthy and have parklands. We hope to achieve this by encouraging people all across the country to become widely involved in tree planting activities so that we reach our objective of planting one million trees each year,” he said. These activities help to raise awareness among children and youth and people of all ethnic groups so that they get involved in the reforestation process. Dr Sinlavong said because large areas of forests had been depleted, the natural world had become unbalanced. Global and regional scientific analysis had identified the phenomenon of global warming and had linked the problem to deforestation. Trees will be planted on about 25,000 hectares of land in Laos this year, of which 12,000 hectares are in Vientiane . Critics have expressed concern about the effectiveness of the programme as about 20 percent of trees planted on Arbor Day each year later die. Director General of the Forestry Department Dr Silavanh Sawathvong said the death of these trees was not a problem. “Individuals and business units account for this by planting 35 percent more saplings than are required in areas where trees have died,” he said. The government has a consistent policy to promote tree planting and has encouraged individuals and business units to plant a variety of tree species. Arbor Day was declared in 1980 as a means to encourage people to plant trees and restore the country's forests. The true area of forested land in Laos is unclear as there has been no exact survey. In 2002, 47 percent of the total land area was reported to be forested and the government plans to increase forest cover to 53 percent by 2010. Forest degradation is not just a problem in Laos , but also in many other countries. Asean recognises that the proper management of forests can contribute to combating desertification, conserving forest biological diversity, mitigating climate change and enhancing water resources. Asean leaders signed the Asean Declaration on Environmental Sustainability at their 13 th Summit in November 2007 in Singapore to better understand and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. By Somsack Pongkhao (Latest Update June 2, 2008)
cher PV, je suis desole de ne pas pouvoir poster des photos, je n`ai pas les moyens necessaires. toute fois, tu as raison, il faut voir cela de plus pres or tu peux perdre de l`argent pour pas grand chose...oui, merci pour le compliment ! j`ai reussi a planter d`autres 250 pousses de rotins avec d`autres dixaine de manguiers, si j`avais assez de fond jaurais aimer planter du mais ou du manioc pour le reste du terrain mais je pense qu`il est trop tard : il commencait a pleuvoir a seaux depuis deux semaines, bon, a ton prochain retour ! regards.
