KARACHI: To fight the climate change in our country we need to aggressively promote agro forestry culture, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.

He said agro forestry is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies. He said historically agro forestry is the part of our culture but the recent trend of tree hacking has diminished our tree cover and created new climate issues.

He said that the government should make agro forestry mandatory and set a minimum limit to tree per acre of farmland in each and every part of the country. He said trees are our lifeline and without increasing our forest cover we can’t fight the harmful effects of climate change including storms, floods and heat waves.

He said in cities like Karachi it needs urban forestry. He said we should grow mangrove forests along with our coastline, while the dry riverbeds of the Malir and Lyari rivers are ideal sites for the urban forestry. He said urban forestry and rainwater harvesting could make our arid megacity of Karachi lush green, but it needs government focus and patronage.

He demanded of the government to promote agro forestry in rural areas and urban forestry in cities to fight the climate change successfully.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024