MNS members grow trees to be planted in the Ayeyarwady delta.

LIFE-SAVING trees are to be planted in the storm-hit Ayeyarwady delta region, seven months after cyclone Nargis ravaged the area. The trees will be distributed by the end of December.

with the help of the environmental group Mangrove Network Service (MNS).
MNS is planning to grow 150,000 trees in the Myanmar costal regions, its chairman, U Win Sein Naing, told The Myanmar Times.

“We are planning to grow trees in the storm-hit Ayeyarwady delta region and Rakhine State,” he said.

“Survivors of the storm are eager to grow trees in their villages. They have become aware of the value of trees now, since most people left alive after the storm survived by clinging to the trees. Moreover, they saw that villages with more trees lost fewer victims to the storm,” he said.

MNS has already been distributing trees in the two areas most severely affected by the cyclone, Bogale and Mawlamyinegyun townshi-ps, where MNS has a nursery. It will distribute trees in Rakhine State on December 15.

“We can only give about 2500 trees per village. Some villages want as many as 10,000 trees. We need millions of trees and we need the cooperation of other organisations,” U Win Sein Naing said.

“Trees are good not only as windbreaks and storm-surge breaks, but also for the greening of the villages. Furthermore, trees will provide them with fuel wood and timber over time,” he said.

MNS is distributing fast-growing trees like kokko, eucalypt, sein ban and paukpan phyu.

“We cannot give mangrove trees right now. It is very difficult to get seeds at the moment, because mangrove trees were destroyed by the storm,” U Win Sein Naing said.

MSN works with government, local and international non-governmental organisations on environmental conservation, sustainable livelihood and community development for margi-nalised populations in rural communities. MNS intends to grow more trees in the regions in June 2009.