Party General Secretary To Lam attended the launch of the annual tree planting festival at the grounds of the Communist Party of Vietnam Museum project in Hanoi on February 22.

Party General Secretary To Lam (sixth from left) and officials at the launch of the tree planting festival in Hanoi on February 22.

The ceremony, held by the Hanoi administration in coordination with the Minitry of National Defence and the Ministry of Public Security, also took place simultaneously across 126 communes and wards of Hanoi.

On January 11, 1960 (the first day of the Year of the Rat), then President Ho Chi Minh planted a bayan tree at Thong Nhat Park in Hanoi, officially launching the tree planting festival.

Since then, this event has evolved beyond a mere annual spring activity to become a cherished cultural tradition with long-term significance for the nation’s development.

Addressing the ceremony, General Secretary Lam highlighted remarkable improvements nationwide 66 years since the first tree planting festival, with expanded forest coverage and better public awareness of environmental protection.

He pointed out increasingly severe climate change with complicated natural disasters, as well as deforestation in certain places, requesting tree planting must be sustained on a larger scale and that planting must go hand in hand with nurturing and forest protection.

Each locality must select right species to cultivate in right locations, ensure tight and long-term management, and foster a love for nature in the community, especially the younger generation, he demanded.

The leader underlined the Party and State’s consistent viewpoint of pursuing economic development without compromising the environment.

He emphasised that economic growth must be inextricably linked to environmental preservation, and the development of modern cities must ensure the protection of “green lungs” for the public.

Hanoi must take the lead in green space per capita, General Secretary Lam went on, noting this is an important criterion for evaluating citizens' quality of life, and that Party committees and authorities at all levels must prioritise the development of greenery and water systems as a core task in the capital’s urban planning.

He urged a resolute stance against sacrificing green spaces for unsustainable commercial projects so as to transform Hanoi into a true “city within a forest, forest within a city.'"

Hanoi aims to plant 80,000 – 100,000 trees in the festival’s first phase by the end of March and raise the figure to about 400,000 this year, according to Politburo member and Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Nguyen Duy Ngoc.

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