Basse 2nd Infantry Battalion embarks on tree planting

Basse 2nd Infantry Battalion in collaboration with the regional Forestry department in Upper River Region (URR) on Wednesday embarked on a massive tree planting exercise at the camp’s inner premises.

The exercise, which witnessed the planting of 26 different fruit and non fruit tree varieties; such as mangoes, guavas, pear, pawpaw, and eucarptuh is in response to the Gambian leader’s call for more trees to be planted every year.

Speaking to this reporter after the exercise, Momodou S. Jallow, deputy governor of URR on behalf of the governor thanked the soldiers for what he described as a wonderful move. He said the exercise is in tandem with the government policy that a million trees be planted every year.

He therefore lauded the collaboration between the soldiers and the Forestry department, while advising the soldiers to take good care of the trees in order to realize the benefit of it.

According to him, trees are very important to the environment and human survival, as they help to absorb rain and avoid desertification. Babanding Sanyang, regional Forestry officer for URR, said every year the Department of Forestry, in collaboration with the regional forestry embarks on tree planting.

He said this year, his office in collaboration with sectors like the security, youth organizations, district chiefs, and other organizations will be embarking on a regional tree planting and the target is 10, 000 seedlings which they intend to plant within the Upper River Region.

According to him, the exercise is very important, looking at the environment and the current climate change all over the world, noting that the move will help in mitigating the negative impact of climate change.

He also noted that the move is in complementing to the president’s national tree planting campaign initiative. He therefore urged the military personnel to care and nurture the planted trees, so as to realize the ultimate objective.

Sergeant Doudou Touray of the Basse 2nd Infantry Battalion, thanked his colleagues for the move and assured that the trees would be  taken good care of. He finally thanked the URR Forestry department for the collaboration.