There is a dire need to plant more and more fruit trees to overcome the food scarcity in the country, said Dr Fahmida Mirza, Speaker National Assembly while briefing media persons, after inaugurating the Spring Tree Planting Campaign 2009 here Wednesday.
Federal Minister for Environment Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi, Farha Naz MNA, Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) Tariq Mehmood, senior officials Ministry of environment & CDA and a large number of students were present on the occasion. Fehmida said that planting trees is our moral religious duty.
Therefore, keeping in view the importance of forests the government announced 2009 as the National Year of Environment. She said that population explosion, abrupt and rapid fires, over grazing and excessive exploitation of forest resources for commercial gains have all resulted in massive deforestation that has caused severe climate changes, soil erosion, water scarcity, and threat to natural habitat.
She said that Pakistan was facing one of the most serious threats of forest reserves depletion in the world today, adding that the forest area in Pakistan is less than 4.8% of the total land, which falls short of the international standards.
She said that it is essential for our survival to rectify the past follies and preserve the natural balance. She said that the Tree plantation drives must be carried out with religious fervour and with a sense of national duty. She further said that the protection of trees is even more important than planting the tree. "Looking after the trees is like nourishing the children", said Speaker.
Later talking to the media the Federal Minister for Environment said that more than 70 million saplings would be planted all over the country during this campaign. Out of this more than 0.8 million saplings would be planted in the Urban and Rural areas of the capital.
He apprised that Campaign targets include planting 20 million saplings in Punjab, 8 million in Sindh, 17 million in NWFP, 1 million in Balochistan, 10 million in AJ&K, 3 million in Northern Areas and 8 million in FATA. In addition to this IUCN would plant 0.50 million saplings and Defence Ministry would plant 1 million saplings.
Whereas National Highway Authority (NHA) has a target of 0.50 million and 0.417 million saplings would be planted under the Rachna Doab project. He said that a comprehensive monitoring would be evolved so as to ensure the maximum survival of the planted saplings. He said that these plants should be monitored for at least 3 to 4 years.
The minister said that in Pakistan we are facing severe consequences of deforestation. To reverse this trend, the minister said efforts would be made to increase the forest cover upto 6% by 2015 under Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Briefing media persons, Chairman CDA said that no trees will be chopped in future because we have successfully transplanted big trees by using latest technology, which caused hurdles in Zero Point Interchange project. "CDA is strictly implementing Government of Pakistan's 'Clean and Green Islamabad' plan and CDA will sample 2.4 million plants in three years.
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