Gardeners protest against tree-removal in Kuwait

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Gardens' Families' Association held a peaceful protest yesterday in the area beside the Kuwait International Fairground, demanding that the Kuwaiti environment be kept green forever. The meeting was attended by MPs Dr Aseel Al-Awadhi and Rola Dashti, as well as the head of the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources' (PAAAFR) media department, Abdulaziz Al-Ali and other officials, in addition to a large number of keen Kuwaiti garden owners.The MPs protested against the recent digging up and removal of numerous trees across Kuwait, with Dr. Al-Awadhi saying, "I support the organizers of this gathering protesting against the uprooting of trees. While we do of course support the implementation of the law, we should distinguish between the types of illegal objects to be removed. I don't think that greenery and plant life are violations on state property. If there's empty land in front of a house, we should thank the homeowner for expending effort and money on making the environment surrounding them green," the MP asserted.The MP praised the concept of 'making the desert green' and revealed that she and her parliamentary colleagues are working to introduce legislation to protect Kuwait's gardens: "We will work on submitting a proposal to the government through parliament to ban the removal of trees unless in absolutely essential individual cases," she explained, adding, "There should be rules introduced for the growing of plants and I'm sure that if these were introduced people would respect them. I think that if trees exceed a proscribed height limit, for instance, only those parts that exceed the limit should be cut down, rather than uprooting the whole tree.Fellow MP Dr. Rola Dashti said that mistakes have been made in implementing the existing laws covering gardens and the growing of trees. "Why doesn't the Municipal Council meet with the demolition committee and the PAAAFR to modify the legal regulations?" she suggested. "The citizens are paying for their mistakes. Next Monday there's a Municipal Council meeting and I hope they'll review their demolition and removal legislation. The demolition teams are leaving bad results behind them, in many cases changing green spaces to stony desert, causing danger for kids.Like her colleague, Dr. Dashti also suggested that clear horticultural rules and regulations need to be introduced in Kuwait. "People should have a clear idea about the issues involved in planting greenery," she insisted. "We should encourage people to plant and make the country green instead of it being a desert. The present situation is chaos and we want to give our kids a better future.Abdulaziz Al-Ali pointed out that the PAAAFR holds an annual horticulture week, saying, "We encourage the kids and the public to plant and make the country green. We also plant the desert areas and from this point of view we refuse to uproot any kind of plants. Today we are present here to support implementing the law thus under set conditions and rules and not in the current arbitrary way.Haifa Al-Muhanna, the spokesperson of the Kuwait Gardens' Families Association, pointed out that 'Let Kuwait Be a Green Oasis' was a phrase made famous by the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. "This sentence was planted in our hearts, and we all try to apply it," she told the Kuwait Times. "I think that Kuwaitis are well-organized, and they won't refuse the organization and work involved in gardening. The kids and adults gathered here today, came along to express their protest against uprooting any bushes or trees or removing any gardens. We are not against the demolition teams, but we are against the 'massacre' of trees planned for January 3, 2010.Al-Muhanna said that environmental awareness has grown massively in Kuwait over the past couple of decades. "The awareness of horticulture had increased tremendously in Kuwait compared to the 1980s. and we all now know the positive effect of it on the environment. There is an international campaign called; 'The Billion Tree Campaign,' which many people are ignoring. This campaign, which began in 2006 and should last for 10 years, was launched to make up for the great loss of trees, and Kuwait instead wants to uproot million tree next January," she concluded.

Source:kuwaittimes.net/