Al-Assad takes part in the country's celebrations of the Arbor Day

President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday took part in activities carried out to mark the Arbor day in Syria. He planted several tree samplings in the course of the afforestation campaign.

A central celebration was held in the province of Lattakia to mark the golden Jubilee of the country's celebration of this event at Qastal al-Maafe district.

Syria has started the afforestation campaign by planting 48,000 hectares annually, while afforested areas did not exceed several hundreds of hectares before the foundation of the higher committee for afforestation in Syria in 1977.

At the directives of President Bashar al-Assad areas planted with fruit trees will be increased as from this year's season with more 4200 hectares through the two projects of developing the coastal area and al-Hoss mountain.

Areas planted with fruit trees in 1970 were 258,000 hectares increased to 820,000 hectares in 2000. Syria's production of fruit tress in 1970 was 435,000 toms and in 2000 becomes 2.866 million tons.