New large man-made forest to be set up in Punjab

ISLAMABAD: The climate change ministry would help the Punjab government to establish a wide-spread, new, man-made big forest in line with the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

An official of the ministry informed this correspondent that Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired an online meeting on July 12 in which he directed Punjab Minister for Forests and Wildlife Sibtain Khan to make preparations to establish a new artificial forest on the pattern of Changa Manga, planted by the British foresters in 1866.

The meeting was also attended by Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar and other senior officials. He said the prime minister wanted the provincial government to establish new forest as part of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project aimed at increasing forest cover in the country.

The new forest would be first of its kind after independence but it will also need lots of resources, commitment and concerted efforts to translate the idea into reality. This project is likely to generate thousands of green jobs especially for the youngsters. The ongoing projects initiated during the coronavirus pandemic have already generated 80,000 green jobs across the country. The government has planned to provide green jobs to at least one million youngsters in the next few years.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said his ministry is providing all-out support to the provincial governments to implement green initiatives introduced by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“We want the provincial governments to fully own the projects like Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project, Clean and Green Pakistan and Protected Areas Initiatives. The establishment of new planted forests is a reproduction of what we have already done in the Khyber-Pakhtoonkhawa province,” he said.