Sepa to conduct province-wide plantation drive from July 15

Environment secretary says harsh penalties would be imposed on tree cutters

The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) will launch a province-wide tree plantation campaign with the onset of the monsoon season on July 15, environment secretary Baqaullah Unnar told a consultative meeting at Sepa complex on Thursday.

The environmental watchdog agency would also impose harsh penalties on individuals and organisations involved in chopping trees in the province, said Unnar, who is also the secretary climate change and coastal development.

 “We have decided to launch a plantation drive in the province with the onset of monsoon season on July 15 and in this regard, people from all walks of life and different stakeholders would be taken on board to make the campaign successful,” he said.

Officials from various other departments, including district forest Shahzad Sadiq Gill, and experts from public and private sector organisations, including Ali Dhelvi from the WWF Pakistan, Dr Zafar Iqbal and Dr Waqar Ahmed from Karachi University’s Institute of Environmental Sciences, Rafiul Haq from the Horticulture Society, environmental consultants Shahid Lutfi and Dr Lekhraj Kella, along with representatives from various other NGOs attended the meeting and presented their suggestions to make the plantation drive successful.

Unnar said scores of plantation drives had been launched in the country since the creation of Pakistan, but he regretted that most the drives were, unfortunately, unsuccessful to yield the desired results. 

“Vast lands in the province are turning into deserts due to lack of trees and vegetation. There is a dire need to plant new trees as even our agricultural fields lack trees and vegetation, let alone banks of canals and roads in main cities,” he deplored.

He maintained that people had forgotten the importance of having trees in their neighbourhoods and despite wishing to see greenery and trees in their localities people were not ready to plant trees. 

He vowed to make the upcoming plantation drive successful by involving common people and adopting a participatory approach.

On the occasion, he announced imposing strict penalties on people and organisations chopping down trees and destroying vegetation in Karachi and rest of the province in the guise of development, saying no development could be carried out by cutting trees.

Unnar said people should realise that it was a much-needed campaign in view of the rising temperatures in Sindh.

He urged people from all walks of life to join the cause to save earth from global warming.

“The purpose of this meeting at the SEPA head office is to seek experts’ opinion and to ascertain how this tree plantation campaign could be launched effectively and maximum number of saplings could be planted so that they could turn into fully grown trees,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, SEPA additional director general S M Yahya said the plantation campaign would be launched across Sindh as both rural and urban areas had ample space to plant trees and make the province greener.

He invited all stakeholders to join SEPA in this cause and give their suggestions and ideas to further improve the plan.

In his welcoming remarks, SEPA director technical Waqar Hussain Phulpoto said: “Our effort is to take every sector on board in this campaign to make it a big success and achieve desired goals by planting saplings in every nook and corner of the province.”

Earlier, in his detailed presentation, environmental consultant Shahid Lutfi briefed the meeting on how to effectively plan and implement a tree plantation campaign. He highlighted various segments that could be incorporated into the campaign to make it more organised and meaningful.

Various experts were of the view that it was a must to know what type of saplings should be planted on a specific soil and for this purpose communities must be made aware to plant a right sapling at a right place.