Tree-planting blitz in desert

Straits Times 19 Sep 09;

SINGAPOREANS are part of an ambitious plan to transform desert regions in Mongolia into green belts.

Local Timberland employees were among those who made the trip to Inner Mongolia's Horqin desert last month for a tree-planting blitz.

During the three-day trip, 60 volunteers from China, Japan and Taiwan, as well as five Singaporeans, planted close to 1,000 saplings. The work involved transporting soil and plants, digging holes and planting and watering the young trees, as well as pruning existing trees.

Volunteers with the outdoor footwear and apparel company have planted more than 700,000 trees there since 2001, together with Japanese non-profit organisation Green Network.

The goal is to plant a million trees there by next year.

Timberland Singapore marketing manager Cheryl Kow, 31, joined the tree-planting effort for the second time in two years. 'When I saw the trees we planted earlier had grown to knee-height, I felt a sense of pride,' she said.

The Horqin desert, now the size of Switzerland, is expanding at 10,000 sq km every year, said Timberland, and this growing barren region generates massive migrating dust clouds that affect air quality in China, Japan and other Asian countries.

Planting trees helps to reverse the process.

The difference was palpable, said Ms Kow.

Describing how her group had walked from a desert area to one where trees were planted, she said: 'At first, you could just feel the sand grains pelting against your skin. The minute we reached the forest, all this stopped and it was cooler.'

Globally, Timberland has planted close to one million trees in 25 countries to help prevent erosion, protect wildlife habitats, improve air quality and green urban areas.

CHANG AI-LIEN