Athletes plant trees as part of Samoa’s efforts to go green

TEAM Papua New Guinea athletes planted trees at the Faleata Natural Reserve in Apia, Samoa, on Saturday as part of the ‘two million tree planting programme’ which is part of this year’s Pacific Games.
The programme is part of the Samoa Pacific Games theme of ‘Greening the Games’.
Team PNG were the first country to respond to the call for the initiative.
Team PNG athletes were led by Team PNG athlete representatives Lua Rikis and Milton Kisapai who are both Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advocates.
It is the aim of the Pacific Games to promote SDGs by planting 200 trees for each country that participates at the Games.
Chef de mission Emma Waiwai said Team PNG supported SDGs and were pleased to be part of the programme at the Games.
“Trees and forests play an important role in keeping the balance in our environment and ecosystems,” she said in a statement.
“We all feel the effects of environmental pollution as a result of our own actions and carelessness, and planting trees is an important way in restoring the balance in our natural surroundings.
“And Team PNG are proud to be a part of it.”
In the Pacific, most of the land and natural waterways provide much of the resources and food that people need for their daily needs and survival, and SDGs is a way of protecting them.
This comes as the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Samoan Ministry of Natural Recourses and Environment (MNRE) look to make the 16th Pacific Games as environmentally friendly as possible, reducing the use of plastic bags.