Land being identified for more Miyawaki forests

Islamabad : The climate change ministry is in the final stage to identify ‘Land Bank’ in three cities—Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur—to develop Miyawaki forests as part of Ten Billion Tree Tsunami programme.

According to the details, the campaign to develop Miyawaki forests in the Sindh province was announced in March this year on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

When the campaign to grow Miyawaki forests in Sindh was initiated, 30 different trees were planted in the urban forest at Governor House out of which 12 trees were of fruits and 18 of other species.

The details showed that the climate change ministry and Sindh’s environment department have jointly conducted a survey and now they are identifying the areas where Miyawaki forests can be developed and yield desired results.

An official said ‘Clean and Green Pakistan’ initiated by the federal government and ‘Sarsabz Sindh’ project launched by the Sindh government would go side by side and both the federal and Sindh government would utilize their available resources to achieve the target of increasing tree cover in the province.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to inaugurate work on Miyawaki forests in urban cities of Sindh and both federal and provincial governments are coordinating with each other in this respect.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Sindh government has also started work on People’s Urban Forest project in which trees are being planted on land measuring 110 acres between Dadu and Rice canals, which has recently been retrieved from encroachers.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said that the federal government wants to enhance the scope of Ten Billion Tree Tsunami programme in the Sindh province to increase overall tree cover in the country.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan is highly concerned about reduction in tree cover in major cities of Sindh especially Karachi due to which heat island effects have continuously been causing urban flooding in these areas,” he said.