Yong and Mary at the tree planting ceremony.
LAHAD DATU: State-owned port operator and industry promoter POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd fully supports the nationwide tree-planting campaign and the green energy roadmap.
“As a social conscious organization, we are constantly reminded of our corporate social responsibility on issues of global concern and none is more urgent than the interlinked issues of energy, carbon emission, climate crisis and renewable energy,” said POIC Group Chairman, Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee.
He was speaking to participants of a tree planting program at the POIC Lahad Datu industrial park here organized by the State Treasury Department, led by State Treasurer Datuk Mary Angela Sipaun.
The program was part of an on-going nationwide campaign to plant 100 million trees throughout Malaysia from 2021-2025. The Sabah Forestry Department also has a parallel program to plant 40 million trees in Sabah by 2025 as efforts towards climate change mitigation and deforestation.
Under its Green Energy Road Map, Malaysia is committed to achieving 70% in its energy mix by year 2050.
“We’ve been negotiating obstacles in the biomass supply chain to try to access the roughly 20 million metric tons of oil palm biomass (in Sabah) that can be used for power generation” he said.
The POIC Lahad Datu industrial park had previously hosted several projects on mangrove rehabilitation.
“Loving our trees isn’t new to us as we are aware of the importance of particularly mangroves to our coastal ecology, and the fact that with over 220,000 hectares of mangroves, Sabah has the biggest mangrove reserves among Malaysian states.
“Just like trees in general, mangroves are vital to so many aspects of the people’s lives and any attempt at saving and protecting them deserve our support.”
The campaign today planted 50 trees of the Syzygium Campanulatum.
Also participating in the event was POIC board of directors, Datuk Basari Sarkun, En. Kassim Sulaiman, Tuan Haji Mursid Bin Mohd Rais, and Tuan Osman B.H Bangkong, Officer of Lahad Datu Forestry Department.
