ISLAMABAD: The federal government has allocated Rs 14 billion for ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme to revive forest and wildlife resources in Pakistan during the fiscal year 2021-22.
Documents state that the federal government has allocated Rs14.02 billion for three ongoing schemes which include Rs15 million ‘Climate Resilient Urban Human Settlements Unit’, Rs12 million ‘Establishment of Pakistan wash Strategic Planning and Coordination Cell, Islamabad’ and Rs14 billion for Flagship program ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami, Phase-I” Up-Scaling of Green Pakistan Programme (Revised) during the current fiscal year 2021-22.
In addition, the government has also allocated Rs300 million for the new scheme ‘Capacity building on water quality monitoring and SDG 6 (6.1) Reporting Islamabad project.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf government has started a four year (2019-2023) “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme with a total cost of Rs125.1843 billion.
The overall objective of the “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP) is to revive Forest and Wildlife resources in Pakistan, to improve the overall conservation of the existing Protected Areas; encourage ecotourism, community engagement and job creation through conservation.
As per the details, While the country’s TBTTP helped restore 350,000 hectares of forests and degraded land in the province to surpass its Bonn Challenge commitment while the TBTTP aims to restore one million hectares of degraded forest land under the Prime Minister’s vision for Clean Green Pakistan.
Besides, Pakistan is the only country in the world, which has seen a 300 percent rise in area under mangroves forests, which is vital to mitigate impacts of sea-level rise, and cyclones and coastal erosion.
According to a report published by the World Bank, Pakistan is one of the top ten countries affected by climate change as it is contributing 0.8 percent of global emissions. Because of the country’s geographic diversity, it has similarly varied climate vulnerabilities, which include melting glaciers, droughts, monsoons, and desertification, among others, the report added.
Correspondingly, Pakistan has experienced several extreme climate-related events, such as floods, which have resulted in an estimated $4 billion in average annual economic loss.
The report further states that Pakistan’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below its projected 2030 emissions under a business-as-usual scenario.
Officials of the Climate ministry told this scribe that Tree plantation is the most effective and the cheapest way to fight global warming so that’s why Pakistan has focused on the TBTTP.
They said that the TBTTP is the backbone of the Pakistan adaptation plan which will be approved soon by the Prime Minister.
This plan is replicable as Saudi Arabia is negotiating with Pakistan to replicate TBTTP in its country, they disclosed. They further said that Pakistan is spending an amount equal to 5 percent of GDP on climate-related projects every year while we need $40 billion to implement the adaptation plan.
Pakistan is getting seven to eight million dollars in a project related to glaciers from the Green Climate Fund. Pakistan is also introducing smart agriculture with the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to save agriculture commodities from climate change, they added.
