Amman residents pitch in to plant trees across capital

AMMAN — Around 800 young Jordanians joined Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) teams in planting saplings in several locations in the capital on Saturday to compensate for the trees damaged in last month’s snowstorm. 

Dubbed “Let’s plant trees to make up for what was damaged,” the campaign included the Ghamdan and Mahmoud Al Qudah parks, as well as Jordan Street, Nebal Qattan, the director of GAM’s public parks department, said. 

“We launched this campaign in cooperation with several volunteer groups,” Qattan told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

He noted that thousands of trees were damaged in the snowstorm, which uprooted around 3,800 trees and damaged 28,000. 

“Participants planted around 1,800 trees in Ghamdan Park, 1,200 trees in Mahmoud Al Qudah Park and 2,000 trees alongside Jordan Street,” he said. 

“Around 200 participants planted the trees in Ghamdan Park, while 150 were in Mahmoud Al Qudah Park and 250 on Jordan Street,” Qattan added, noting that the municipality plants around 50,000 trees a year. 

“Trees are not only planted in parks, but also in several parts of the capital,” he added. 

In a GAM statement sent to The Jordan Times, Amman Mayor Aqel Biltaji said that the campaign is part of the municipality’s plans to increase Amman’s green cover.   

The municipality expects that around 500,000 trees will be planted by May this year, according to the statement.