Climate change: Government launches three mega projects to increase forests

Projects will be launched during current fiscal year to bring arid and semi arid land under forestry.

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government will launch three mega projects costing Rs1 billion to address the problems of desertification, climate change and global warming, by bringing more areas under plantations. This was stated by K-P Minister for Forests and Environment Wajid Ali Khan on Monday.

Khan said the projects will be launched in Hazara and Malakand divisions during the current fiscal year to bring arid and semi arid land under forestry.

In addition to these three projects, 61 projects will be completed during the fiscal year 2011-12 for which Rs792 million had been assigned by the provincial government. Apart from direct sowing of forests on 550 acres, plantation will also be carried out on 8,600 acres.

On the Carbon Sequestration Project, Khan said the project was being supervised by the federal government, under which a large chunk of arid and semi arid land will be forested. The provincial government will also allocate funds for this project, he explained.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2011.