(VOVworld)-A ceremony took place in Hanoi on Saturday to kick off Hanoi’s greening-up campaign in honor of the late President Ho Chi Minh. Speaking at the event, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai recalled that 57 years ago, President Ho Chi Minh planted trees at the local Unification park, making the activity a green festival of the entire nation every spring.

Hai pointed to the fact that the city’s green coverage is not enough to maintain the balance of the ecology, while poor protection of trees, forest fires, and illegal logging have been recorded. Hanoi aims to grow over 430,000 trees this year and one million trees until 2020.

People in the nothern province of Quang Ninh have also planted 180,000 trees over the past week in response to the spring tree planting festival.