COLOMBO (News 1st) – The 24th session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO) and the 6th World Forest Week commenced today in Rome, Italy.

The event is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to promote forestry in reaching sustainable development goals.

Addressing the session of the COFO, President Maithripala Sirisena reiterated Sri Lanka’s commitment to conserve and enhance it’s existing forest cover. He also stated his intention of increasing Sri Lanka’s current forest cover (29.7%) to 32%.

While highlighting the need to manage forests around the world in a sustainable manner President Sirisena highlighted an initiative to plant Five million trees by 2020.