100m saplings to be planted during monsoon plantation drive

Islamabad : The climate change ministry has given targets to the forest departments of the federating units for the upcoming biggest monsoon tree plantation campaign in the history of Pakistan as a target of around 100 million saplings to be planted has been given to the federal and provincial governments.

According to the details, the ministry has conveyed the details of the monsoon plantation campaign to the provincial secretaries (forest) and informed them that Prime Minister Imran Khan would also take part in plantation drives in the provinces.

An official said the government has already achieved the target of planting one billion trees till June this year and now it is pursuing another target of two billion trees in next two years.

“Hopefully, the federal government and the provincial governments will successfully plant 100 million saplings during monsoon season. We have also prepared a comprehensive plan to further increase survival rate that is currently almost eighty percent,” he said.

The details showed that the Punjab forest department would plant 50 million saplings and it would also observe a tree plantation week across the province under the ‘Khidmat Apki Dehliz Per (Service at your doorstep)’ programme in which 380,000 saplings would be planted in different cities.

“Some 32 million saplings will be planted in government forests, 6 million in defence department, 8 million in other departments and 4 million on private lands,” the details revealed.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said the protection of natural environment is one of the top priorities of the government and tree plantation campaign plays a vital role in this regard.

He said that all segments of the society would take part in monsoon tree plantation campaign including Tiger Force, students, members of civil society, government departments and private organizations.

The federal government has given targets to the provincial departments and would provide all-out support to achieve them, he said.