ISLAMABAD: Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid Friday said a comprehensive plan 'Green Pakistan' was being devised to promote forestry across the country.
"Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has directed the ministry to prepare a comprehensive strategy for the purpose and we have started work on it," he apprised the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change.
He said consultation process with concerned provincial secretaries had already been initiated as "the national plan, which is at its advanced stage, has to be implemented at the provincial level."
Under the strategy, the minister said, trees of special species including juniper, Deodar, Sheesam and pine would be planted in different forest pockets to tackle adverse affects of climate change in the country.
Zahid also informed the body that he had floated an idea to the Prime Minister for setting up a Climate Change Inter-Ministerial Authority, aimed at providing a national-level platform to discuss matters pertaining to environmental issues with different ministries and provinces.
He expressed the hope that provinces would support this initiative in supreme national interest.
The minister briefed the committee members on the Climate Change Conference COP-21 recently held in Paris, which was participated by delegates from 195 countries and attended by 150 heads of states.
He said the conference discussed all possible ways and means to mitigate negative impacts of climate change and global warming across the world.
Zahid said the conference had reached an agreement that every country would have responsibility as per their capacity to tackle environmental issues.
The conference agreed on a 'differentiated responsibility' on every participant country, he said elaborating that developed countries would have more responsibility than developing nations.
The Inspector General Forest also briefed the body about the steps taken by the ministry to stop deforestation.
The committee members expressed dissatisfaction over the role of forest department, saying that precious trees were chopped for monetary benefit of individuals in connivance with some influentials.
They blamed that in some forests of Swat-Buner (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Ziarat (Balochistan) rare and precious trees were cut by the mafia. "Even, their roots are burnt to remove any sign of trees there," they said.
The meeting, chaired by Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman Khan Drishak, was attended among others by MNAs Malik Ihtebar Khan, Chaudhry Khalid Javaid Warraich, Salman Hanif, Shahnaz Saleem, Khalida Mansoor, Nighat Parveen Mir, Mussarat Ahmd Zeb, Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan and Naeema Kishwer Khan, besides seniors officials of the ministry and Pakistan-Environment Protection Agency.
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