Azernews.Az

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijan will launch a massive tree-planting campaign in its lands liberated from Armenian occupation in 2020, local media reported on October 29.

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Ecology Minister Vugar Karimov said that trees will be planted on almost 100 hectares of the liberated lands under the Green Marathon campaign, the report added.

Karimov underlined that trees will be planted on 32 hectares in Zangilan, on 40 hectares in Jabrayil, on 20 hectares in Friendship Park to be created jointly with Turkey, on 10 hectares in Aghdam, and other territories.

"This fall, trees will be planted on an area of ​​60 hectares," Karimov said.

He added that approximately 400,000 trees had been planted within the campaign, including in Baku and the Absheron Peninsula. Another 800,000 are planned to be planted in the autumn and winter period.

"It is planned to plant trees in the village of Mushfigabad, along the Baku-Sumgayit highway, in the north-western direction, along the Baku-Gazakh highway. Work will also be done to restore forests," Karimov noted.

Furthermore, the issue was on the agenda of a regular meeting of the Working Group on Environmental Issues of the Interdepartmental Center under the Coordination Headquarters held in October.

It was noted that the Ecology Ministry will organize a large-scale tree-planting campaign in Karabakh and East Zangazur regions to improve the environment in the liberated lands.

The group members were also briefed about the road infrastructure projects in the liberated territories and a preliminary assessment of the forest resources of the territories was conducted on the basis of satellite images.

As a result of Armenian aggression and occupation of Azerbaijani lands for almost three decades, all cities, including hundreds of settlements, houses, public and private property, numerous infrastructure facilities were completely destroyed. Everything on these territories was destroyed not during the war, but during the occupation period.

Azerbaijan started to restore and rehabilitate its lands immediately after the end of hostilities.

The main source of funds for the reconstruction is the national budget. The Azerbaijani government has allocated $1.3bn for the reconstruction of the liberated territories in 2021. In particular, these funds will be used to restore the infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, communications, roads, education, health, etc), as well as cultural and historical monuments.

Earlier, President Aliyev stated that by reconstructing generating capacities and power transmission lines, Karabakh will turn into a "green energy" zone.

On May 3, the president signed a decree on measures to create a "green energy" zone in the country’s liberated territories.

Under the decree, $1.3 million shall be allocated from the presidential reserve fund envisaged in the 2021 state budget to attract a specialized international consulting company to develop an appropriate concept and master plan on the creation of a "green energy" zone on Azerbaijan's liberated territories.

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