Independent monitoring unit for plantation on the cards

Islamabad : Adviser to the prime minister on climate change Malik Amin Aslam directed all authorities concerned to expedite the legal formalities for the plantation of saplings on time, especially during the coming spring season, and produce an assessment report of plants availability and hurdles to their plantation.

"The nation is very enthusiastic about the billion tree plantation project as it would enhance the biodiversity and ecological impact on the inhabitants. We will appoint an independent monitoring unit, which will supervise the tree plantation in the federal as well as provincial level," he told the third meeting of the Federal Forestry Board (FFB) called here to review the progress on PC-1 models for 10 Billion Trees Tsunami project prepared by the provinces.

The models were prepared by Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan forestry departments.

Officials of the forest, environment and wildlife departments of KP, Punjab and Sindh participated in the meeting.

They apprised the adviser of the formulation of PC-1 and tree plantation models including cost, monitoring and irrigation.

They said the PC-1 for 10 billion tree tsunami were completed and sent for formal approval to the provincial Planning and Development division, which was imperative for transparent execution of the project.

Keeping in view the environmental and ecological impact on the different variety of trees, the forest departments of all provinces, after exhaustive research, selected different tree samples for plantation with varying cost.

According to the PC-1, Punjab province would plant 0.53 billion plants at a cost of Rs58 per plant, Sindh two billion plants at a cost of Rs5 per plant, KP one billion plants at a cost of Rs27 per plant, Balochistan 0.25 billion plants at a cost of Rs64 per plant, Gilgit Baltistan 0.17 billion at a cost of Rs41 per plant, AJK 0.70 billion plants at a cost of Rs29 per plant and National Highway Authority 0.0014 billion plants at a cost of Rs1,675 per plant.