Nearly 8.2 million new trees planted in Azerbaijan

About 8.2 million different species of trees were planted in Azerbaijan from autumn 2009 and to spring of 2010, Azerbaijani Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Huseyngulu Bagirov said in an interview with the ruling New Azerbaijan Party's official website.

"Large-scale ecological events have been carried out in the country since 2009 upon President Ilham Aliyev's initiative to  plant 3 million trees in Baku and surrounding areas.  The ministry planted around five million trees," Bagirov said.

Bagirov said that the area of specially protected natural areas was expanded from 478,000 hectares to 890,000 hectares since 2003. The country has eight national parks, 11 state reserves and 24 state conservation areas, which account for 10.3 percent of the country's territory.

"We took a number of serious measures to protect and restore forests. The ministry held support activities for seeding and natural regeneration on an area of 7,750 hectares in 2002. The figure was 10,751 hectares in 2009. Overall, reforestation was carried out on an area of 69,715 hectares in 2003-2009," he added.

About 287,000 tons of mercury-containing toxic waste generated in the production of chlorine and contributing to increased pollution of Sumgait was transported and completely cleared from the hazardous waste landfill, Bagirov said.


/Trend/