IN its efforts to fire up the excitement for the Green Games campaign organised in conjunction with the 29th SEA Games and the 9th ASEAN Para Games (also known as Kuala Lumpur 2017 or KL2017), Malaysia Organising Committee (MASOC) has announced another new programme under its Green Initiatives for KL2017.
The announcement was made in a ceremony held at Bukit Jalil yesterday. The programme called “One Medal, One Tree” entails planting 5,249 trees to offset the Games’ carbon emissions as well as to raise awareness about the importance of forest rehabilitation for biodiversity conservation.
The number of trees to be planted is based on the total number of gold, silver and bronze medals offered in the SEA Games and the ASEAN Para Games.
This initiative will be carried out in four phases starting from August 2017 to March 2018. The first phase starts with the launch of the initiative today while the second phase will be when the seedlings are given to the winners at every medal presentation ceremony during the Games.
The third phase will be during the tree planting activity for every gold medal won by Malaysian athletes which will be held at Kuala Lumpur Sports City (KLSC) after the Games ends.
Meanwhile, the fourth phase will involve the planting of trees at several locations under the The Central Forest Spine Master Plan (CFS) which will take place from October 2017 until March 2018.
CFS is a long-term plan under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to nurture, conserve and enhance the connectivity of the ecological corridors among the four major forest complexes in the Peninsular.
Tentatively, the trees will be planted under viaducts or bridges which have been built to allow wildlife to cross the forest safely. The area is an important ecological corridor, which see a high track of movement of wild animals such as elephants and tigers.
Malaysian Landscape has been appointed as the Green Initiative Partner for this project to ensure that the program is successfully executed.
In the meantime, SCGM Berhad which is the Official Green Games Partner for KL2017 and Tenaga Nasional Berhad are the co-sponsors of the program.
At yesterday’s ceremony, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin led a tree planting activity at the Mini Forest in KLSC to mark the launch of the program.
Khairy said, “As I have always said, the SEA Games and the ASEAN Para Games are not just a medal-hunting field. It is also a platform to put into action legacy programmes that could leave a positive impact on the younger generation. For example, the Green Initiatives project has been carried out to spread, teach and inculcate the good values about environmental protection.”
He added, “In line with KL2017 mission to leave a meaningful legacy, we will also support efforts to rehabilitate certain forest areas. ”
The Games will take place from 19th to 30th August 2017 for the 29th SEA Games and 17th to 23rd September 2017 for the 9th ASEAN Para Games.