Forestry resources to be revived under 'Green Pakistan Programme'

The federal and provincial governments would spend Rs 3.652 billion on revival of forestry resources, which were greatly damaged due to transfer of forest land for non-forestry purposes. Sources said that a meeting of Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec), held here with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair, was submitted a proposal by Ministry of Planning and Development for approval.
The meeting was informed that under 'Green Pakistan Programme', the federal government will contribute around Rs 2 billion and provincial governments' share would be around Rs 1.5bn. The meeting was further told that the forest resources continue to deteriorate both qualitatively and quantitatively as a result of increasing pressure due to rising population and associated needs. The reason cited in the proposal for deterioration of forestry department was diversion of forest land to non-forestry purposes during the last few decades, which has caused serious issues for forest managers.
The forest lands are mainly transferred for agriculture, infrastructure, defence and tourism purposes. Additionally, a new challenge of climate change has also triggered adverse impacts on all aspects of environment, including forests and associated biodiversity.
Similarly, wildlife resources (species and habitat) all over the country are on the decline due to various factors, including illegal trade, capacity issues of management authorities, weak legal system and human conflict with wild animals.
The government has decided under the directives of the prime minister to develop projects for revival of forestry and wildlife resources. The projects include: (i) development of 'Report on State of Forestry Resources;' (ii) Green Pakistan Programme - Revival of Forestry Resources; (iii) and strengthening of zoological survey of Pakistan to develop immediate inventory of endangered wildlife species.
The objective and scope of the project is development of 'Green Pakistan Programme' for plantation of indigenous and fast growing local tree species, including flowering and fruit trees, as well as plantation of additional 100 million new plants over the next five years to make the country green and aesthetically serene.
These plants would be grown at: (i) one thousand avenue miles of canal side/ roadside plantations in Punjab, KP and Sindh; (ii) historic irrigated plantations of Changa Manga, Daphar, Bahawalpur and Chichawatni,;(iii) olive and Kikar Phulai forests in Kala Chitta, Pabbi Rasul and Fort Monroe scrub forests of Punjab; (iv) mangrove forests in Karachi and Badin along with scrub hill forests at Khirthar Range in Sindh;(v) juniper forests of Ziarat and Chilghoza forest in Suleiman Ranges of Balochistan; (vi)water and Soil conservation plantations and operations in GB and AJK moist tropical forest areas (reserved as well as community forests); (vii) Guzara Forests in Murree/Kotli Sattian and Hazara and protected forests of Malakand region in KP; (viii) and dry temperate forests in Fata (Orakzai and North Waziristan Agencies, etc, as well as undertaking urban afforestation pilots in ICT/CDA.