Islamabad: The federal government has decided to change the name of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Project (TBTTP) to the Green Pakistan project and allocate Rs3.9 billion for this purpose in the upcoming annual fiscal budget. According to the details, the climate change ministry has presented the suggestion to change the name of this project which was highly projected by the PTI-led government to get attention of the foreign donor agencies. Now this initiative taken by the former prime minister will continue but with a new name and allocation of funds will help complete all ongoing projects to increase green cover in Pakistan.
A total of Rs125 billion will be spent on this project which holds special significance keeping in view the destruction of green spaces in the last few decades to develop housing societies and residential and commercial units.
The official data revealed that Rs15.59 billion was allocated for wildlife components from 2019-2023. The Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) amount released for the fiscal year 2019-2020 was Rs7.5 billion against the requested amount of 15.6 billion, there was a financial cut of 52.3% for the first fiscal year of the project. The total PSDP amount authorized for 2020-21 was Rs4900 million against the requested Rs23 billion with the financial cut of 78.69%. Almost 91% of the hiring of staff for the National Strategic Support Unit (NSSU) has been completed. The stationing of staff throughout Pakistan for monitoring and evaluation of the project activities is still under process. The incumbent government is reluctant to fully endorse the claims made by the previous government that TBTTP helped restore 350,000 hectares of forests and degraded land to surpass its Bonn Challenge commitment.