Staff Reporter
Special Assistant to PM on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Sunday urged the civil society to play its role in boosting the country’s tree-cover and climate-resilience through enhanced contribution in the government’s pursuit of sustainable management of forests on national and sub-national levels.
“When forests are managed sustainably, they can grow healthy, productive, resilient and renewable ecosystems, which can thrive while at the same time providing essential goods and services to people worldwide”, he said.
Addressing a tree plantation event in collaboration with a civil society organization, the PM’s aide Malik Amin said the significance of forests could not to be underestimated or exaggerated.
“We rely on forests for our survival right from the air we breathe to the wood we use. Besides being the backbone of natural ecosystems and habitats for animals and source of livelihoods for humans, forests also offer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion, fight environmental degradation, air pollution, improve human health and address devastating fallouts of global climate crisis,” he explained.
Malik Amin stressed it was, thus, imperative that all forces and segments of the civil society played their part in increasing the country’s forest cover to make Pakistan clean, green and climate-resilient.
He also urged the civil society organizations, particularly educational institutions, to join the incumbent government’s largest-ever afforestation initiative Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP) launched under Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision for clean and green Pakistan.
He said there were so far many success stories, which have emerged as a result of the implementation of TBTTP.
For instance, the afforestation programme has help raise Pakistan’s importance and drawn global appreciation for it as a serious and committed country in fighting the adverse impacts of climate change on human society and the natural ecosystems, SAPM Malik Amin added.
