Is Pakistan prepared to counter Climate Change Threat?
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LAHORE (APP): The Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) Monday said that the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government was aware of country's vulnerability to the climate change impacts and it was taking all-out measures to protect the climate of the country.
Talking to APP, MoCC spokesman Saleem Shaikh said that the tree plantation target of 153 million was set for the spring season this year, which had been achieved. He said that Pakistan is home to forests spread over around 800,000 hectares, which constitutes five per cent of the total land mass of the country.
"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ambition of Green Pakistan Programme is a clear indicator of the incumbent government's unquestionable seriousness about protecting socio-economic sectors, lives and livelihoods of the people from the bad impacts of climate change," he added.
He said that role of forests in tackling climate change impact, particularly floods, soil, wind and river erosions, sea-level rise, erratic and torrential rains, is now being recognised globally and the government was drafting a comprehensive policy in this regard.
While giving break-up of the spring tree plantation target achieved, he said that the Punjab Forest Department planted 13.92 million trees against the target of 12.09 million trees. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa planted 175.64 million trees, against the target of 123 million, Sindh planted 7.1 million trees against the target of 6.799 million, and Balochistan planted 1.093 million against the given target of 1.5 million trees.
Alos, Azad Jammu & Kashmir planted 3.157 million trees, against the target of 1.3 million trees, Gilgit-Baltistan 0.711 million trees against 1.1 million trees target, FATA 4.389 trees against 4 million target.
Saleem Shaikh said that tree plantation targets are set twice a year for spring season (February-March) and monsoon season (June-September).