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ar manufacturing company PT Toyota Astra Motor (TAM) planted 2,000 seedlings at Swela district in East Lombok on Saturday as part of environment preservation efforts.

The regeneration project was launched through the Toyota Duty Free-NEWTrees Go Green Program in cooperation with WWF Indonesia, the East Lombok regency and Forestry Agency and the local community. The growth progress of the trees will be monitored using Google Earth technology.

From October to December last year, people who bought a Toyota vehicle were presented with 30 seedlings to be used in this regeneration project, TAM's Catharina Soetjipto said.

"Consumers were chosen from a number of NGOs and embassies in Jakarta," she said.

The project also involved the participation of representatives from the Chinese, South Korean, British, Sudanese, French and Italian embassies.

Catharina said the Toyota Duty Free-NEWtrees Go Green project was Toyota's first tree planting initiative and was now to become an annual event.

The seedlings were planted by local residents, students and representatives of youth organizations like the Boy Scouts on a 5-hectare plot of fallow land in the Swela district, near the Gunung Rinjani National Park.

Joko Trisanyoto, TAM's marketing director, said planting trees was part of the company's Toyota Global Vision 2020 goals, which aim to support regeneration efforts.

"Toyota is not only concerned with the development of the automotive market, but also with the environment," he said. The initiative for the program was sparked by the spreading impact of global warming and the drastic reduction of green areas.

"Every 100 liters of fuel consumed produces 340 kilograms of CO2, which can only be neutralized by a tree which is at least 20 years old," he said. "This reality forces Toyota to take the lead and participate in this tree planting program," he said.

Also present at the ceremony was Lalu Nirwan, East Lombok municipal administration secretary, who hailed the program for its innovation, saying he hoped it would be sustainable.

"The majority of the 50,000 hectares of forests in East Lombok have already been damaged due to human activities and illegal logging practices. Replanting trees is a very important step and should involve as many parties as possible," he said.

Illegal logging occurs across Indonesia for a number of reasons, from commercial desires, to construction and simply a need for firewood. Such practices have substantially reduced water resources in East Lombok as well.