Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has urged the youth and academia to join Prime Minister Imran Khan's “massive plantation initiative” to achieve a whopping target of planting around 200 million saplings during the ongoing monsoon season.
"All-out efforts will be made not only to achieve this target, but also exceed it by a huge margin during the monsoon tree plantation season that will continue till September 30," the adviser said while talking to media in the federal capital on Sunday.
He said the target of planting 200 million saplings was set after due consultations with the provincial forest departments, which shared their approved targets of tree plantation during the three-month monsoon season, which continues from July to September every year.
PM Imran Khan inaugurated the country's largest ever Monsoon Tree Plantation and Protection Campaign 2020 by planting a sapling in Kahuta on July 17, pledging to utilise all possible resources and capacities to enhance the country's forest cover and fight environmental degradation.
Addressing the ceremony, PM Imran had lauded the raging passion of the youth to participate in the plantation campaign across the country, saying "youth and students are the future of Pakistan".
Sharing the details of tree plantation targets, Aslam said as many as 80 million trees would be planted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province followed by 60 million plants in Sindh, 37 million in Punjab, 14 million in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 2.050 million in Gilgit-Baltistan and 0.602 million plants in Balochistan.
“The remaining saplings will be planted by different civil society organizations including International Union for Conservation of Nature-Pakistan and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan.
He said tree plantation targets are set twice a year for spring season (February-March) and monsoon season (June-September), because good rains are received during these months, which adequately soak the soils vital to healthy growth of tree saplings.
"The monsoon season [June-September) is a great opportunity for forests' growth in the country because the four-month wet season is a source of trillions of liters of rainwater needed for the seedlings to grow fast and hold their grip in soil strongly," Aslam said.
He said tree plantation is vital for conserving nutrient-rich soil through regeneration of forests across the country. Tree plantation is a proven method to maintain fertility of the soil and to protect the soil from erosion and nutrient loss.
“Soil conservation is important because soil is crucial for many aspects of the human life and non-living beings. For, it does provide food, filters air and water and helps to decompose biological waste into nutrients for new plant life," the prime minister's aide said.
Aslam said coronavirus pandemic has brought new challenges for the country in terms of job losses and slow-down in economic activities.
“But through tree plantation activities, new green jobs are being created and youth are being engaged in such healthy activities to boost their contribution in the country's fight against climate change.”
He said the tree plantation activities during the ongoing three-month monsoon season will lead to generation of estimated 34,470 green jobs for daily wagers, who have been rendered unemployed because of the pandemic.
"In the past two years, the PTI government has planted 300 million trees across the country, while new nurseries are working at a higher pace to hike this number to one billion by June next year.
Aslam said the present government is committed to boosting the country's forest cover.
“For this purpose, all provincial and federal government organizations, educational institutions, corporate sector, NGOs and media are being approached and engaged to join the government's efforts for reinvigorating the country's ailing forest sector,” he said.
(With additional input from Our Correspondent)
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