Volunteers unload rare timber trees. The trees will be planted at 61 schools in northern Nam Định Province’s Nam Trực District. — Photo courtesy of Nguyễn Quang Thạch

HÀ NỘI — The ‘Bookisation Programme for Rural Areas of Việt Nam’ volunteer group, in co-operation with local authorities in the northern province Nam Định , have kicked off a programme to plant 6,450 rare timber trees at local schools on Thursday.

This is part of the campaign to plant 10,000 trees at schools in Nam Định and Thái Bình provinces in this year.

As planned, 6,450 trees will be planted at 61 pre-schools, primary and secondary schools in Nam Trực District in Nam Định Province. Of that, the volunteer group supplied 3,400 trees and the rest of the trees were supplied by the district’s local authority and teachers and parents of the schools.

The rare and precious trees include eagle wood, perfumed wood, sưa (dalbergia tonkinesis) wood, and sao đen (hopea odorata).

Nguyễn Quang Thạch, co-founder of the Bookisation Programme for Rural Areas of Việt Nam, said he hoped the planting of timber trees in Nam Trực District would inspire other districts of the province to do the same, so that more trees would be planted this year.

The programme was established in 2007. It aims to create a civil library system to encourage people in rural areas to read. More than 30,000 bookcases have been set up, providing access to books to more than one million rural readers.

Tree planting is among projects launched by the group to inform students about environmental protection and climate change in rural areas. — VNS