Ministry confident of exceeding plantation target

Islamabad : Declaring tree plantations crucial for soil conservation through forest regeneration, the climate change ministry is confident of exceeding the nationwide target of planting 200 million saplings in the current monsoon season.

"Not only will we meet the 200 million sapling plantation target during the current monsoon campaign, largest in the country's history, we'll also surpass it significantly,” adviser to the premier on climate change Malik Amin Aslam told reporters here on Sunday.

The Monsoon Tree Plantation and Protection Campaign, 2020, launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan on July 17 will continue until September 30 with the objective of increasing forest cover and fighting environmental degradation in the country.

The premier's aide said the monsoon plantation target was set in consultation with the provincial forest departments. He said 80 million saplings would be planted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 60 million in Sindh, 37 million in Punjab, 14 million in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 2.05 million in Gilgit-Baltistan and 0.602 million in Balochistan, while the rest would be planted by civil society organisations, including International Union of Conservation for Nature – Pakistan, and World Wide Fund for Nature – Pakistan.

Malik Amin said the plantation targets were set twice a year first for the spring season (February-March) and later for the monsoon season (June-September) as those months recorded good rainfall adequately soaking the soils vital to the healthy growth of saplings.

“The monsoon season [June-September) is a great opportunity for the forests’ growth in the country. The year’s longest four-month wet season is a source of trillions of litters rainwater needed for the seedlings to grow fast and hold the soil tightly,” he said. Malik Amin said tree plantation was vital for conserving nutrient-rich soil through regeneration of forests across the country.

“Being a proven method to maintain the fertility of the soil by protecting the soil from erosion and nutrient loss, the soil conservation is important because soil is crucial for many aspects of the human life and non-living beings. For, it does provide food, filters air and water and helps to decompose biological waste into nutrients for new plant life,” he said.

The adviser said the COVID–19 pandemic had brought new challenges for the country, especially economic slowdown and job cuts. He, however, said tree plantations were creating 'green jobs', especially for the youths, to increase their contributions to the country’s fight against climate change and environmental degradation.

Malik Amin said tree plantations during the ongoing the three-month monsoon season would lead to the generation of around 34,470 green jobs for daily wagers, who were rendered unemployed due to the outbreak of COVID–19. He said though all activities related to forestry and wildlife was labour-intensive, two sectors were being tapped into playing a more positive role in providing much-needed local livelihoods to millions in the wake of the pandemic.

The adviser said the government was committed to protecting forests and wildlife resources in the country, so the number of such exclusive zones, where the plants and trees could grow and wildlife flourished, would be significantly enhanced in the days ahead under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme being implemented across the country with the complete support of provincial governments, educational institutions, international and local NGOs and civil society organisations. He said over the last two years of the present government, 300 million trees had been planted across the country, while new nurseries were working in a higher pace to hike the number to one billion by June next year.

Malik Amin said the government was committed to increasing the country’s forest cover, so it was approaching all provincial and federal government organisations, educational institutions, corporate sector, NGOs and media to join efforts for re-invigorating the country’s ailing forest sector.

“To achieve this goal of 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme is particularly important, because forests are the best way to cope with various deleterious socioeconomic, environmental and health-related fallout of global warming-triggered climate crisis, particularly floods, droughts, heat waves, desertification, wind erosion, storm-rains, and heavy winds, cyclones, sea intrusion, glacial melt, erratic and torrential rain being experienced in the country in a more frequent and intensified manner,” he said.

The adviser said the role of the country’s youths and teachers were critical to achieving Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision of Clean Green Pakistan, so they should plant more and more saplings and protect them to help them become healthy trees.