TREE NUMBERS SHOOTING UP
Sunday 30th October 2022
Gorinsk - If you've ever talked to your grandmother, you'll have heard her tell you she can remember when "this was all trees". Razenland has a proud arboreal heritage and still today anyone will be glad to tell you that Razenland is "half forest". But is your grandmother telling the truth? Reports in recent years have suggested that tree coverage nationally is actually likely to be around a third of total national land area, while a new official report confirms that it is in fact just 28%.
Research conducted for this report pointed early on towards a conclusion along these lines, and it is this that prompted President Volotka to announce his Century of Trees Project, aimed at restoring large forests and small woodlands throughout the country. Launched on New Year's Day 2022, when the president himself planted a wild cherry tree in the grounds of Government House, the Century of Trees Project has now achieved a milestone ten million trees planted so far. With the planting season upon us once more, tree numbers are shooting up.
The symbolic planting back in January echoed the actions of President Tumilovich who, in 1999, planted a chestnut tree outside Government House to kickstart his Millennium Tree Project, which aimed to plant ten million trees before the dawn of the new millennium. That ambition was achieved, with the official grand total reported at the time as 10,093,225. But CoT will go further, seeking to plant between thirteen million and fifteen million trees every year for a century, with the ultimate aim of reforesting up to 48% of land area nationally.
"We have more than five million hectares to plant" declares Government's Yuliana Trubila, Director of the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture. "It will take a long time but it is a phenomenal and worthwhile project - a whole century of tree-planting is just what our planet needs."
President Volotka has been seen in the media recently, encouraging support for the project, with televised appearances showing him planting more trees on land he now owns at the northernmost point of the country. He says he plans to plant all around his fifteen-hectare estate, making it his personal contribution to the scheme and to the health and wellbeing of our planet.
But detractors have criticised his ownership of so much land, with one anonymous correspondent claiming "only farms and forests can occupy so much space in Razenland - he has used his position to claim land for himself. Dare I say the word 'corrupt' in front of reporters?" Meanwhile environmentalists have pointed out that, without a strict curbing of deforestation, the aim to cover 48% of the country with trees will take not one hundred years to achieve, but up to 225.
Negative reactions in some quarters will disappoint the president, whose summer has been spent talking up Novigrad - a project to build a new 'eco port town' in the Far North region, which will welcome cargo vessels and transship goods on to trains for cross-continental journeys, saving huge ships expensive voyages and weeks at sea. Detractors of that flagship idea are already nicknaming it Volotkagrad, in the belief that the president is treating it as a vanity project. But, sporting his own new Razenland National Forestry uniform, as he wanders his fifteen-hectare garden wielding a spade and a bag of tree saplings, he would argue that he is digging in for a greener future for our country and its people.
WHO IS PRESIDENT VOLOTKA?
Profile
Witold Volotka is the third President of the Republic of Razenland. He rose quickly through the ranks of his regional transport union before being encouraged to stand for election to the National Assembly, the parliament of Razenland. Elected in 2010 as a member of the fast-rising One Nation political party, he was installed in a junior position within the Ministry of Transport. Amid the party's tussle with its leader, President Smolski, over legislative reforms, a breakaway faction, including Volotka, formed the Centrist Union Party and contested with great success the 2015 general election. As part of the coalition government that followed, Volotka became Director of the Ministry of Transport in 2015. Following Smolski's death in 2021, Volotka won the presidential election out of an incredible 18 candidates.
WHAT IS RAZENLAND?
Profile
The Republic of Razenland lies on the continental northwest peninsula, a medium-sized country of some 109,000 square miles total land area. It has mountains in the south at its border with its only two neighbours. In recent history, the country suffered military occupation by a foreign state through the 1980s, finally ended in 1988. A new constitution was drawn up and the first free elections of the new republic held in 1990. Razenland has many state-owned or government-run industries and enterprises, spanning energy production, transport services, vehicle manufacturing, mining and forestry. It has a population of around nine million people, who enjoy visiting and exploring the nation's many lush forests in their leisure time, and its national animal is the stork.
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