- Malik Amin urges provinces to pace up efforts for protecting forests
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Sixth Meeting of the Federal Forestry Board was held at the Ministry of Climate Change in Islamabad on Monday which was chaired by the Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam Khan.
The high-powered meeting was attended by the forest secretaries of all provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan, who shared with the Board meeting the latest information regarding progress of the tree plantation under the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP), conservation of forests and wildlife across the Country.
The Provincial Secretaries also shared details regarding the achievements against targets set for Monsoon 2021, update on state of stocks in nurseries and strategy for the upcoming Spring Tree Plantation – 2022.
They also informed the Forestry Board meeting about land identified for plantation, days and number of events planned for inauguration of the Spring 2022 plantation campaign was also presented.
Today, SAPM Malik Amin Aslam @aminattock chairing the 6th Meeting of Federal Forestry Board at Ministry of Climate Change where they discussed about the future aims of Forest Department.#10BillionTreeTsunami#Plant4Pakistan pic.twitter.com/7gmxySFlO6
— Ministry of Climate Change, Govt of Pakistan (@ClimateChangePK) January 10, 2022
During the meeting, the National Project Director of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP) briefed Malik Amin Aslam about the updated physical and financial progress of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP).
The Board was informed that over 70 percent of the plantation target of 502.500 million set for three-month monsoon season 2021 which ended in September last year, has been achieved.
The Board was also apprised that a target of one billion tree plantation was set for the FY 2021-22 under TBTTP that included both monsoon and spring tree plantation targets.
Malik Amin Aslam directed the Forest Secretaries of the provinces, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan to mobiles all resources to achieve the target of planting one billion trees by the end of June 30, 2022.
Lauding the untiring efforts and smooth coordination with the federal government, he also pledged his all-out support to the provincial forest departments to achieve the target.
The Special Assistant on Climate Change also suggested that dedicated days for plantation with judiciary, schools, media, teachers, prayer leaders, NGOs and other government and non-governmental sectors should be identified/set for plantation under upcoming Spring tree plantation campaign for year 2022.
The Special Assistant directed that all provinces should be taken on board for achieving the spring tree plantation target and a digital dashboard should be established for monitoring of the online progress of the tree plantations.
Amin Alam stressed that data regarding plantations and other relevant activities TBTTP must be uploaded timely on the digital dashboard of the programme for public information.
Malik Amin Aslam also directed that 20% of the positions of forest Neghbans (forest watchers) should be set aside for females and women must be involved in nursery plantation.
The Special Assistant directed the Board to plan for setting up woodlots on private lands in different parts of the Country, which would serve as a parcel of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower appreciation. The Board also reviewed the progress of third-party independent monitoring of the TBTTP by IUCN, WWF – Pakistan and UN-FAO.
The Board was further informed that KfW has provided US$ 106,000 to the consortium for phase-I for third-party monitoring of the TBTTP and has agreed to provide US$ 205 million for the programme’s monitoring during phase-II.
