Le grand plan vert – Le Jeune Indépendant

Restore degraded ecosystems.

The celebration of National Arbor Day this year is marked by a vast tree planting operation, with the objective of planting, in one day, at least one million seedlings throughout the national territory. For the General Directorate of Forests (DGF), this national initiative is part of efforts to restore degraded ecosystems, fight against climate change and preserve biodiversity.

The main actor in this operation, the DGF mobilized all human and material resources to guarantee this operation which coincides with the launch of the 2025/2026 planting campaign and which took place in the 58 wilayas of the country. This initiative, which attracted the support of a large number of people, through the various points identified the day before by the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, coincides according to the DGF with the launch of the 2025/2026 planting campaign. It is above all part of “efforts to restore degraded ecosystems, fight against climate change and preserve biodiversity”.

“This day is an opportunity to recall that the forest ecosystem fulfills several functions, in particular the protection of soil against water and wind erosion, it contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity and the mitigation of the effects of greenhouse gases and the fight against climate change,” indicated the DGF in a press release, noting that “the forest is one of the important sources in food security “.

Pointing out the fact that forest areas have been the subject, during the last century, of various human attacks which have considerably reduced plant cover and caused the regression or disappearance of numerous animal and plant species, the DGF affirmed that for the northern regions of the country, the priorities mainly relate to “the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems taking into account the recurrent phenomena of fires, through intensive reforestation. The objective is the reconstitution of forests, in particular those of noble species (cork oak, Atlas cedar, black pine, Numidian fir, etc.).

The DGF also indicated that Algeria currently has 4.1 million hectares of forest. A result obtained “thanks to reforestation and regeneration efforts deployed since 1962”. Noting that the afforestation rate is estimated at 11% in northern Algeria, the DGF expressed the desire to increase this rate to 13%, through the implementation of the National Reforestation Plan, while signaling the relaunch of the green dam.

The General Directorate of Forests, which reports that, since 2019, 63.9 million plants have been planted, or an area equivalent to 79,890 ha, sets the outlook for the 2025/2026 campaign. It is planned, it was specified, the planting of 38,441 ha, or 30,700,000 forest, fruit and pastoral plants, the objective being “the reconstitution of forest ecosystems following the various degradations caused by different factors, climatic and anthropic”, in particular the repeated fires which ravage significant areas each year, thus inducing the loss of forest heritage on the one hand and the biodiversity on the other hand, according to details from the DGF.