LCCI, SPFC to promote investments in forestry

Project aims to create 15,000 jobs, offer farmed wood for furniture-making

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) and South Punjab Forest Company (SPFC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday to promote investment in forestry sector of south Punjab and will also highlight forestry opportunities offered by the Government of Punjab, a press release said.



The consensus was made at a consultative session at the LCCI headquarters with LCCI President Abdul Basit, Senior Vice President Amjad Ali Jawa, SPFC CEO Tahir Rasheed in attendance.  The SPFC was established as a public sector company with a mandate to stimulate private sector investment alongside public money towards reducing deforestation in Punjab and to combine forest conservation with sustainable economic development.

SPFC’s Tahir Rasheed that SPFC is offering 99,077 acres for forestation and range management to investors for 15 years in five districts of South Punjab including Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and D.G. Khan.

Commenting on the initiative, he said it will benefit the local economy by creating over 15,000 jobs and provide sustainably farmed wood to the wood-based industry, eventually reducing logging pressure on the natural forests of Pakistan.

Urging SPFC officials to launch an awareness campaign, LCCI President Abdul Basit emphasised on promoting sustainable forestry concepts. “There is a need to educate people regarding sustainable forestry and media can play an important role by raising awareness regarding it,” he said.



“We have to recognise that forestry is an integral feature of sustainable economic development and should be valued in policy corridors for generating new economic opportunities”, Abdul Basit said, adding that by developing forestry as a commercially viable sector, the country can make the agriculture sector stable and valuable for economy.

SPFC aims to achieve the ‘Life on land’ goal of social development goals (SDGs), which focuses on managing forests sustainably, restoring degraded lands and combating desertification etc. The initiative will eventually contribute to reducing pressure on the existing forests.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2017.

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