Plantation programmes changing economic landscape in Pakistan

By Our Correspondent
April 18, 2021

Islamabad : Some 4,250 olive trees planted under Ten Billion Tree Tsunami programme has started bearing fruit indicating this unprecedented initiative is going to improve the economic landscape of the country.

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According to the details, the olive trees were planted with the use of an efficient drip irrigation system that greatly helped them attain maturity and bear fruit in a couple of years.

After the passage of the 18th Amendment, the management, planning, execution and implementation of the forest are vested in provincial forest departments, but policy making is a federal responsibility.

Given the economic benefits of the increasing tree cover the federal government has launched highly ambitious tree plantation programmes that would help improve socio-economic conditions of the local people in all the federating units.

The data of the climate change ministry showed that the target to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020 was achieved in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa (KP) and now it is pursuing its next target of 350 million hectares by 2030. It was the first Bonn Challenge pledge to reach its restoration goal.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said that environmental resources play a vital role in the economy.

“The Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project will hit the 150-million mark and will create approximately billions of dollar per year in net benefits that could bring direct additional income opportunities for rural communities,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has said that achieving the 350 million hectare goal will generate about 170 billion dollar per year in net benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields and forest products.

Malik Amin Aslam said “Environmental resource evaluation is part of a development process that helps in achieving sustainable development goals of an economy. So we are preparing a database of tree plantation campaigns that will be largest of its kind in the country.”

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