Tuesday, 18 November 2008Six million trees at about 100 locations throughout Macedonia will be planted Wednesday (Nov. 19) in the frameworks of a campaign dubbed "Tree Day - Plant Your Future".
The campaign was initiated by opera singer Boris Trajanov and is realised with a support by the Government. Citizens, municipalities, the City of Skopje, schools, non-governmental organisations, media, companies...are expected to take part in the afforestation campaign.
More than 1,800 members of the Macedonian Army will plant about 200,000 seedlings at 14 locations in the country, thus taking active participation.
In order to trigger massive turnout by the citizens, Wednesday will be non-working day.
A free shuttle bus service for all those who want to plant a tree will be organised every two hours, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Marking Tree Day, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and members of his Government planted trees Tuesday nearby the monument of city's liberators in Skopje. Moreover, Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski, deputies and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Aco Spasenoski are set to plant trees in Parliament's yard.
On Tuesday, heads of five religious communities in Macedonia ÔÇô Orthodox, Catholic, Islamic, Evangelical Protestant and Jewish - also joined the campaign by planting seedlings in front of the Catholic Church in Skopje, urging the citizens to do the same tomorrow.
On Sunday, during a promotional activity for the campaign, Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, Minister of Interior Gordana Jankuloska and Defense Minister Zoran Kojanovski, together with Deputy Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Environment ÔÇô Zoran Petrov and Sonja Lepitkova respectively ÔÇô representatives of the diplomatic corps and entertainers planted trees outside Boris Trajkovski Hall.
The afforestation campaign, aiming at preserving the environment and raising the ecological awareness, kicked off in March 2008, when two million trees were planted in one day. The seedlings were provided by the Government.
Following the example of Macedonia, in March 2009 other Balkan countries will organise a similar afforestation campaign. ba/fd/13:34
November 18, 2008 |
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
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