The ministry is experiencing challenges in the provision of tree seedlings making it difficult for the government to meet its goal of planting 1.5 billion trees annually, Environment CS Soipan Tuya has said.
The CS revealed this while appearing before the Senate on Wednesday.
"The challenge our ministry is facing is the provision of seedlings to meet our annual target of planting 1.5 billion trees," she said.
The government aims to plant 15 billion trees by 2032 in a bid to realise 30 per cent of tree cover.
Tuya further talked of the ministry's plan to engage schools in tree-planting programs.
She said they had already identified 20,000 schools to pilot the tree-planting programme.
"Schools are major stakeholders in tree planting programmes. As the Ministry our strategy is to build a value system that we want to inculcate in our children from early schooling," Tuya said.
