Every full-grown tree must be tagged to dispel negative propaganda in addition to ensuring transparency in tree plantation campaigns launched by the governments, said Syed Zia Alumdar Hussain president Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).
In a statement issue here on Tuesday, he said that successive governments have been launching regular tree plantation campaigns for the last many decades. "But there is no available statistics of trees planted in different areas and during tenures of various governments", he added.
He said that negative climatic change apparently indicates that we have failed to add required quantity of new trees whereas the existing trees are being cut for minor benefits. He said that immediately after the creation of Pakistan the departments concerned were tagging each tree within their domain. "Thus, 100 percent correct statistics of trees planted were available for the policy-makers", he added.
He lamented that later this positive practice was abundant and now millions of trees are being claimed to be planted every year, but practically they are non-existent. He said that due to the lack of effective supervision and monitoring, the precious and full grown trees are being cut and misappropriating by the vested interests. He said that as the reliable record is not available, hence, no action could be taken against the corrupt elements.
He stressed the need of transparency in tree plantation campaigns and said that these adult trees may be tagged with specific number which could be regularly monitored through geographic positioning system.