YANGON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is planning to grow more than 10,000 saplings across Sagaing region in the northwest as part of its environmental conservation efforts, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Monday.

The project, to be carried out by the region's Dry Zone Greening Department in cooperation with local residents in the tree-planting season of the fiscal year 2018-19, is aimed at raising public awareness about the sustainable growth of the natural environment, benefit of planing trees and their economic importance, said the department.

U Ba Lwin Oo, the departmental head, said the environmental conservation efforts focused on best practices for planting and maintaining trees in order to address climate change.

The planting of sapling trees cover four main townships in the region, namely Tantse, Ayadaw, Hsalingyi and Myanaung.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is also projecting to implement a 10-year plan of reforestation and rehabilitation of its forest across the country including establishing forest, nurseries and replanting of trees in forest reserve areas, the Forest Department said.

Myanmar is one of most resource-rich countries in Southeast Asia. However, statistics show that forest coverage in Myanmar dropped to 42.92 percent over the past two years from over 57 percent in 1990.

Northwestern Sagaing region suffers most from illegal forest exploitation which is also found in Kachin and Shan states and Bago region.