ISLAMABAD: The federal government claims to have achieved the target of planting more than 200 million saplings in the ongoing year as part of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government's 10 Billion Tree Plantation Campaign.

In July this year, the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) had set a challenging target of planting 200 million saplings across the country by September 30, 2020. This target, the ministry officials claim, has been achieved. "There might be some issues in some areas, but, by and large, this tree plantation campaign has been hugely successful," the MoCC official said.

Advisor to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam directly supervised the campaign. Part of 10 Billion Tree Plantation Campaign, The Monsoon Tree Plantation and Protection Campaign, 2020, launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan on July 17, 2020, continued till September 30 with the objective of increasing forest cover and fighting environmental degradation in the country.

The federal government said the monsoon plantation target was set in consultation with the provincial forest departments. Under this initiative, some 80 million saplings were planted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 60 million in Sindh, 37 million in Punjab, 14 million in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 2.05 million in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 0.602 million in Balochistan, while the civil society organisations, were tasked to plant the remaining saplings.

Last year, the federal government released Rs 1.25 billion for the plantation of 3.29 billion saplings across the country under the 10 Billion Tree Plantation campaign. Under this initiative, some 3.29 billion trees would be planted in a period of four years.

In July 2019, Aslam told the media that Sindh government has agreed to plant one billion trees in the province while Punjab and Balochistan would also plant one billion trees each and KP would plant 1.5 billion trees under the 10 Billion Tree Plantation Campaign.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020