KARACHI: Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Saturday said climate change and environment conservation require public awareness and community engagement.
She was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the project “Restoration of Riverine, Inland, Dry-land & Urban Ecosystems of Sindh” in Karachi on Saturday.
Initiated with the cooperation of the World Bank, the project’s objectives include conservation of existing forest cover and plantation on barren waste lands available with the Sindh Forest Department.
Read more: Climate Change Ministry to launch satellite monitoring based State of Forest Report
The minister said Pakistan is gradually losing its forest cover due to excessive deforestation and degradation activities mainly due to poverty, urban sprawl and lack of fiscal space for strong policy initiatives in protecting forests.
Discussing the current water stress being faced by the country, Sherry Rehman remarked that Pakistan is facing an acute water shortage, and inland water ecosystems are imperative for our water requirements and need to be conserved.
This project’s pivotal focus on conservation of wetlands will prove to be a timely measure.
Appreciating the efforts of the Sindh Forest Department on reviving mangrove forests, she said the flood plains covered by mangroves have increased from 10 to 13 per cent.
The NDRMF project will prove instrumental in maintaining the existing forest cover and will help rehabilitate riverine, dry-lands and mangrove forests in Sindh.
On March 15, the then special assistant to prime minister (SAPM) on climate change Malik Amin Aslam had announced that the ministry would launch the State of the Forest Report annually, based on satellite monitoring to reveal change analysis of plantation sites after massive plantation and afforestation.
Addressing the two-day consultative workshop on establishing a geospatial platform for Pakistan’s Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Plantation (TBTTP) project, he had said it was a historic day as International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) after collaborating with the Ministry for the flagship TBTTP project’s geospatial monitoring added another layer of transparency and credibility for the initiative.
Amin had said due to the green vision of the then prime minister Imran Khan the country was declared forestry champion and leader in forestry initiatives at the global level and the United Nations Environmental Assembly made Pakistan one of the members of its eight-member body.
“The world has acknowledged the ecosystem and biodiversity conservation vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan through the TBTTP as a leadership model and direction”, he had said.
The SAPM had informed that the country had achieved a 1.5 billion trees target under the TBTTP project. He had mentioned that the Billion Tree Afforestation Project (BTAP) was the only government initiative that saved Rs 8 billion of the national exchequer and achieved beyond its set target.
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