EDITORIAL: Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a massive reforestation project on Sunday with the planting of 3.5 million saplings across the country in single day, a part of his 'Ten Billion Trees Tsunami Programme (TBTTP)', to be completed by 2023. A million-strong tiger force, a voluntary body of youth, participated in the 'Green Pakistan' campaign by planting indigenous fruit and non-fruit saplings all across the country in cooperation with the climate change ministry as well as provincial forest departments. August 18 is also to be marked as the 'Plant for Pakistan' day encouraging citizens' participation in it. All government departments and the armed forces will also make their respective contribution to the effort.
Pakistan is one of the ten countries most vulnerable to deleterious effects of global warming, which is already causing erratic weather patterns. The PM noted that during the past two years wheat production has fallen due to unprecedented rainfall. For the last several years, alternating dry spells and heavy downpours resulting in droughts and floods have been wreaking havoc in large swathes of the country. Some areas face the threat of desertification. According to Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, three districts in Punjab and as many in Sindh have been identified as desertification hotspots. Referring to a World Bank report, he averred, "these hotspots will become uninhabitable by 2050 if we do not plant trees there today." Indeed, trees acting as carbon sink are the best bet against global warming. At present, Pakistan's green cover is estimated - in the absence of reliable data- to be between 2 to 5 percent- far short of the UN recommended 12 percent. There obviously is a dire need for reforestation and regeneration of the existing forests to protect lives and livelihoods as well as conserving the county's rich biodiversity.
The key to success being involvement of stakeholders it is good to note that the TBTTP has been designed to open new avenues for local communities to earn revenue. The overall target, said the PM, is to generate one million jobs in five years, 80,000 of them in the current year. The plan, 'holistic vision' as he put it, includes the Protected Areas Initiative, aimed at strengthening of 15 national parks/protected areas across the country, which should help protect biodiversity, control pollution and preserve precious recourses. "This Green Stimulus has been acknowledged globally," he added. Indeed, his firm commitment to a greener Pakistan forcefully articulated in his last September's speech to the UN General Assembly session was widely appreciated. More heartening has been a tangible acknowledgement that came from the World Economic Forum when in 2018 it praised Pakistan for the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adding 350, 000 hectares of trees, saying the country surpassed its 348,400 hectare commitment to the Bonn Challenge - a global effort for the restoration of 150 million hectares of the world's deforested and degraded land by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. The enthusiasm with which the present imitative has been launched suggests it would not be difficult for Pakistan to surpass the 2030 target as well.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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