Climate change: Ministry plans to involve communities to boost forest cover

Minister says the federal govt will leave no stone unturned to join provincial governments to boost forest cover

ISLAMABAD:

The climate change ministry has decided to take private sector and communities on board to boost forest cover in the country besides protecting existing forests.

“The federal government will leave no stone unturned to join provincial governments in their effort to boost forest cover in the country,” Climate Change Minister Mushahidullah Khan said while chairing a meeting here on Thursday.

The meeting titled “Boosting forest sector and making it sustainable in Pakistan” was attended by key stakeholders including provincial forest secretaries and conservators.  The minister assured the provincial forest departments of all-out support to increase the forest cover.

“Though the forest has become a provincial subject after the 18th amendment, the federal government will leave no stone unturned to achieve national targets,” he said and adding that these targets could only be achieved if the private sector and local communities were taken on board.

He said that climate change ministry will lead a tree plantation campaign in all provinces to increase area under forest from current five per cent to at least 12 per cent within next few years.

The minister asked the forest officials to identify loopholes and propose solutions to deal with them.

“We want to show to the world that Pakistan is committed to tackling global warming, climate change-induced disasters particularly floods and that the country is aware of the significance of forests in this regard.

For this purpose, the provincial governments have to join the federal government to boost the forest cover,” Khan said.

Provincial forest representatives also shared their respective forest growth plans and urged the minister to arrange financial and technical support to make these plans a success. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.