FAISALABAD City News

‘Over 100m tress to be planted

under Green Pakistan Programme’

From Our Correspondent

FAISALABAD: University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan has said that more than 100 million trees will be planted in the country under the Green Pakistan Programme.

He said this while inaugurating the Green Pakistan Programme at the Directorate of Farms, UAF, on Friday. The UAF VC said that the government was making tangible steps to increase wooden places in the country but the unskilled manpower was hampering process of bearing fruits. He said that unskilled manpower in forestry was responsible for low forest, which was only two per cent compared to minimum international standards of 25 per cent. He said that the UAF was taking initiatives to provide the assistance to the government in terms of manpower and research to run the programme effectively. He said that in 1990, forests were 3.4 per cent of total land area of the country, which had not reduced to two per cent in 2015. The Green Pakistan Programme includes 1,000 avenue miles of canal side and roadside plantations in Punjab, KP and Sindh, plantations at Changa Manga, Darphar, Bahawalpur and Chichawatni, he informed. He said that the management of forest and wildlife resources of the country needed to be adequately developed in line with best international practices. He said that ecosystem was degraded or exploited because of deforestation, increasing pollution, emission of smoke from industries and climate changes. The secret to cope with the situation lies in social mobilisation and promotion of plantation, he added. He said that the UAF had emerged as 25th green university of the globe. He said that due to excessive plantation, climate temperature at the UAF remains less than rest of the city. Dean Prof Dr Abdus Salam said that the people must be made aware about the potential hazards of deforestation. He said that we would arrange capacity building workshops to refurbish the professional skills of workforce. He said that during the last 50 years, about half the world’s original forest cover had been lost. Prof Dr Tahir Siddique said that forests also greatly influence climate change by sequestering carbondioxide in atmosphere.