Budget cuts for plantation drives put question mark on priorities

Government departments contend that current financial year allocations will not affect running

LAHORE:

While climate change and the environment have taken centre stage for the country’s foreign policy in the past few weeks, the reality at home, with regards to Pakistan’s effort to combat climate change, is quite different.

Back in June, in the budget presented by the incumbent coalition government not only was the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) flagship Ten Billion Tree Tsunami (TBTT) renamed to Green Pakistan but its allocation was heavily dented as well - a Rs9.45 billion budget was approved for the new financial year which is Rs4.5 billion less than last year.

Similarly, in Punjab’s capital, where the PTI’s ally, Chaudhary Pervez Elahi, is currently heading the government the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) Lahore, has closed down the Urban Forestry project, under which more than 50 Miyawaki forests were planted in different places across the city. Sources familiar with the Urban Forestry programme, said that it had been shut down due to political reasons during Hamza Shahbaz’s stint as Chief Minister (CM).

Badar Munir, an expert on forestry and wildlife based in Lahore, commenting on the allegations, said that it made little sense for any government to play politics on the environment. “Regardless of who is in charge, it should be their priority to create awareness amongst the people about climate change and mass tree plantation drives.” However, despite there being a new CM, the programme has not been started yet.

Spokesperson for the PHA Lahore, Nadia Tufail, when asked about the project’s closure despite the climate change threat, said that the strategy this time around was to care for the already planted Miyawaki forests instead of planting new ones. “These forests are already growing very fast. We will see the results for a while and consider reopening the Urban Forestry project in the future if needed.”

The Express Tribune also spoke with Hasan Ali Sukhera, Project Director of Green Pakistan, and inquired about the budget cuts affecting the mass plantation drive but was assured this was not the case. However, when pointed out that the Green Pakistan initiative had already fallen short of its first phase target by planting 1.8 billion trees as opposed to a target of 3.296 billion trees, Sukhera blamed the coronavirus. “The pandemic impacted our targets, so we extended the project deadline from 2023 to 2025. We are hopeful that this project will achieve all its goals and reach completion by 2030. At that point trees will have been planted on an area of more than 1 million hectares in Pakistan,” Sukhera assured.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2022.