President Rouhani participated in National Arbor Day or National Tree Planting Day, officially commemorated February 5 each year. His quota in the commemoration was planting a sapling.
During his brief address on Wednesday after planting, President Rouhani criticized the dominant trend where the environment had been subject to ‘severe damage;’ he made a general call on the public as well as government officials to participate in the great campaign to revive the environment and the valuable plant lives; “a cultural campaign would inculcate in the young cohort the respect for environment and natural resources; planting a tree is such act of positive impact; ranges, forests, marshlands, rivers and lakes are the source of life and we have a great responsibility to protect these natural resources for our public good,” Rouhani said.
“Lending due attention on Natural Resources Week and Arbor Day is not only a subject pertinent to economy; rather, it directly plays upon our health and well-being; figures indicate that in recent past, the record of the public about the environment had been disappointing; government branches have huge responsibilities to explain the realities of the environment to the public,” he demanded.
Rouhani believed that the Week should provide impetus for all to protect the great bounty the nature had given “our country.” President Rouhani warned the possible special interest circles who would circumvent the law and use government rentier sections to abuse forests and pristine lands for their own private interests; “the public and civil society should thwart the impact of these special circles,” Rouhani told the ceremony where his first deputy Ishaq Jahangiri and his deputy for Department of Environment Masoumeh Ebtekar were also attending.
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