Tree plantation campaign launched at Governor House

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail on Saturday inaugurated a monsoon tree plantation drive at the Governor House as a part of the “Clean Green Pakistan Initiative” under the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ programme to promote environmental sustainability and biodiversity in the country.

The event was held in collaboration with Dawat-e-Islami Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, the governor said that tree plantation activity made the environment cleaner and also reduced air pollution. He stressed that tree plantation was the joint responsibility of all to create a healthy environment for the coming generations.

“Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract the phenomenon of climate change and prevent the utter collapse of biodiversity,” he observed.

Ismail said that the tree plantation programme was also generating thousands of new employment opportunities in the country. He observed that under the government’s flagship 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project, more than 85,000 people had already found green jobs in the last year, and these persons were guarding forests, promoting eco-tourism and planting saplings at a time when pandemic lockdowns had left many daily-wage earners without work.

“The federal government is targeting the creation of 200,000 new green jobs by the end of year 2021 under its ecological protection and restoration projects,” he added.

This campaign includes restoring mangroves and forests, as well as planting trees in urban settings, including schools, colleges, public parks and green belts. “Thirty different trees have already been planted, spread over one acre, under the urban forest plantation campaign, at the Governor House; out of which 12 trees are fruit-bearing and 18 of other species,” he added.

Likewise, he said, Under Japanese "Miyawaki" technology, 1,260 types of plants had been also planted earlier in the Governor House.

The primary purpose of the campaign was to contribute to the efforts to improve the climate of Karachi, through which more and more trees could be planted in smaller spaces, he remarked.