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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Billion trees planted to counter effects of global warming

Dunya News

The Billion Tree Tsunami project was completed this month ahead of the deadline set for December 2017. Photo: Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Projects Website

(Web Desk) - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has planted a billion trees in a bid to restore forests wiped out by decades of deforestation and natural disasters.

The plantation drive was completed in a span of just two year.

The project named ‘Billion Tree Tsunami’ aims to slow down the effects of global warming in Pakistan which ranks in the top 10 in a list of countries most likely to be affected by the phenomenon, The Independent reported.

Imran Khan, the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf – the governing political party of the province launched the green mission in the north-west of the country.

The project was focused along the area beside the Gambila River, in the Bannu District, where vast swathes of forest were wiped out in the past after its broken bank resulted in flooding.

The Billion Tree Tsunami was completed this month ahead of the deadline set for December 2017 and is expected to be extended across Pakistan to tackle the country’s contribution in global warming.

According to Khan, forestation by the river banks sustain the rivers. Declaring the billion tree project very important for the future, Khan said that the glaciers that are melting in the north, are a consequence of the massive deforestation the country has witnessed within the past few decades.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa launched the project as part of an international goal that calls for the global restoration of 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded lands by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030, reported Voice of America.

A Forestation Nursery in KPK. Photo: Reuters

Experts at World Wildlife Fund-Pakistan, say that the project has been an environmental, economic and social success, with one of the highest survival rates of trees in the world, ranging from 70 to 90 per cent as recorded by the officials.

“If the trend continues, there will be more birds, there will be more microbes, and there will be more insects, so there will be more animals, so more habitats. The ecosystem will kind of literally revive in certain places. There will be more rains because we do need rains,” Hamaad Khan Naqi, WWF-Pakistan’s director general, VOA news reported.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature congratulated Khan on reaching a “momentous milestone”.

A statement read: “This marks the first Bonn Challenge pledge to reach its restoration goal.”

An official of the government inspecting a forestation field. Photo: Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project s Website

Inger Anderson, director general of IUCN told BBC, “The Billion Tree Tsunami initiative is a true conservation success story, one that further demonstrates Pakistan’s leadership role in the international restoration effort and continued commitment to the Bonn Challenge.”

Khan said the provincial Government has banned the cutting and felling of trees in reserved forests across the province and the authorities have controlled deforestation by closing hundreds of illegal sawmills and arresting timber cutters.

 

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