Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has planted two saplings to mark the national Arbor Day, describing planting of a tree as a “religious and revolutionary” action.

Khamenei planted the fruit tree saplings on Sunday morning, on the occasion of the national tree planting day.

He urged all government institutions to take measures to preserve the country’s water, soil, and wildlife.

Khamenei said, "The destruction of forests and the environment and vegetation is the destruction of national interests" and called on the authorities to protect trees from profiteers.

Despite Khamenei’s public expression of support for the environment, successive Iranian governments have left a bad record in protection of natural resources.

In December 2021, the head of the forestry scientific association, Ali Banagar, expressed concern about the speed of deforestation in Iran, enumerating the factors that fuel the trend, including the country’s aggressive pursuit of development projects through often illegal constriction of luxury vacation houses, wood smuggling and illegal logging, encroachment on forests and land grabs, forest fires, as well as pollution and landfills.

Hit by the most severe drought in decades, Iran is reportedly increasingly losing its forests and vegetation, with forest acreage having decreased from 19 million acres to 14.4 million between 1900 and 2012, and further shrunk to 10.7 million by 2015.