The Lao government is planning to reforest 2 million hectares of vacant land in the country to increase the land area covered by forest, the Lao news agency (KPL) reported.
It is to make up for decrease in the forest cover of the country from 47 percent in 1998 to 38 percent in 2008, the agency added.
The Department of Forest of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry disclosed this week that it would be transplanting 32 million seedlings on vacant throughout the country.
Initially, 30,000 hectares of land would be reforested with various kinds of natural trees on Arbor Day, 2009.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is planning to increase the forest cover by adding an additional six million hectares by 2020 but on a short term basis it will be replanting trees on two million hectares by 2010, said Thongphath Vongmany, Standing Director of the Department of Forestry./.