By: Assoc. Prof. Dr Siti Suriawati Isa

KEDAH – 39 third year students of Bachelor of Parks and Recreation Science (BSTR) of the Faculty of Forestry and Environment (FHAS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) carried out a tree planting activity to help the Kedah State Forestry Department (JPN Kedah) in attaining its goal of planting 2.75 million trees.

The Programme Coordinator, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Suriawati Isa said this activity received assistance and support from JPN Kedah, which supplied 300 baccaurea macrocarpa (tampoi tree) and remnia (marian plum or setar tree) saplings as well as tree-planting tools.

“The saplings were planted around Kampung Perik and Kampung Baru in Mukim Tualak of the Padang Terap district, Kedah, by the students and communities of the two villages,” she said.

Previously, she added, the same group of students had planted 50 saplings of Asam Gelugur, or its scientific name, Garcinia atroviridis, at the Puncak Janing recreational area in June 2022.

“This activity is a continuation of the earlier tree planting activity, and this time around, it involved the local community on a larger scale. Besides, the tree planting campaign is also an effort under the Twelfth Malaysia Plan to keep Malaysia green,” she said.

Apart from that, the BSTR students of FHAS, UPM also conducted a special programme for the Kampung Perik community called ‘Hutan, Manusia dan Haiwan’ (Forests, Humans and Animals) a day before the tree planting activity to spread awareness and knowledge to all levels of the community on the importance of forests to humans and animals.

The half-day programme, carried out at Masjid Jamek al-Islah, Kampung Perik, attracted 23 villagers aged between five and 62.

At the end of the programme, the villagers were asked to make presentations on the tasks assigned to them. The presentations uncovered that they had a good understanding of the roles of forests to humans and animals.

Both programmes were organised by the BSTR students of FHAS, UPM as part of their fieldwork for the subject, Parks and Recreation Hospitality which required the students to organise activities and programmes related to the organisation of hospitality events.

Besides, such programmes could bring the University and the rural community closer together, enabling collaborative efforts to take place in materialising programmes which could benefit all parties. - UPM

Date of Input: 27/06/2023 | Updated: 03/07/2023 | hairul_nizam