Billion Tree Tsunami Project of KPK Government: Analysis Report
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PESHAWAR, (APP): Billion Tree Tsunami Project of KPK Government: Analysis Report
The Billion Tree Tsunami, an ambitious afforestation campaign, is progressing vigorously with special focus of planting ecologically suitable plants which are non-invasive in nature.
At each district of the province, special emphasis has been given to ecologically suitable indigenous plants so that the objective of recovering loss to flora could be achieved without affecting environment, ecology and ecosystem of the area, said Shabir Hussain, Project Director Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project (BTTAP) .
Talking to APP during a day long field visit to plantation sites in Southern districts of KP including Kohat, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan (D.I.Khan), Shabeer Hussain said no invasive specie has been planted and few exotic species were selected while keeping in view its fast growing speed and economic value for local people whose lands are utilized for forestation.
Project Director BTTAP was referring to criticism raised by some ecologists that the campaign will prove to be a futile exercise due to selection of wrong species of plants for plantation.
The species which are being planted are mostly indigenous including oleander, Aeasia Arabia, chir pine, walnut, ziziphus, Palosa, Shisham, eucalyptus etc.
In response to objection over plantation of eucalyptus, Shabeer Hussain said the specie is selected in Southern districts because of great survival rate and economic benefit to the people, beside addressing the issues of water logging and salinity.
Only 9.3 percent of plantation in Southern districts comprise of eucalyptus while 85 percent is of Palosa, three percent of Shisham and two percent other species,.
He said Forest department is utilizing local people’s land and have to fulfill their demand giving some space to eucalyptus because of its speedy financial benefits.
This is a splendid work done by KP Forest Department by making such a mass scale plantation to address deforestation in the province, viewed Syed Muhammad Abu Bakkar, a columnist with focus on environmental issues.
The project will have very far reaching good impact in fight against environmental degradation and for having a climate resilient future, added Abu Bakkar who also participated in field visit.
No invasive specie has been planted during the plantation campaign and rate of plants survival is around 84 percent which is very remarkable, opined Bashir Hussain Shah, an environmentalist who was also member of WWF's Monitoring team which checked survival rate of BTTAP.
After extensive monitoring of BTTAP, based on random checking of plantation sites, the WWF team found that the survival rate of plants is very appreciative, he added.
The project has also won international recognition as has been accepted for BONN Challenge and declared as one of the six forest leaders in the world during COP 21 conference in Paris (France), Bashir Hussain informed.
One tree produces 516 pounds of oxygen annually and a person inhales around 240 to 250 pounds oxygen,” informs Muhammad Sadiq Khan Khattak, Chief Conservator Forest Department KP.
So if one billion trees are planted how much it would help in provision of clean and healthy air to people, he added.
Chief Conservator Forest added that with completion of the BTTAP the forest cover of KP will increase from existing 20.3 percent to 22 percent, bringing 35,00000 hectares of land under forest cover.
Similarly, the project will also assist at national level by increasing Pakistan's forest cover from existing four percent to five percent. The contribution of BATTP will be 70 percent in increasing Pakistan’s Forest cover by one percent, he added.
Giving details about benefits of BATTP, Muhammad Sadiq said apart from giving environmental profit, the project will improve livelihood of more than 13million poor rural people, provides training to 30,000 individuals and create 5,50000 jobs (50,000 direct and 500,000 indirect).
In the first phase of the project starting from November 2014, Rs. 1912 million was released by government. While in the current fiscal year (2015-16) Rs. 600 million has been released and disbursed among the forest division. The number of planted sapling till March 2016 is around 250 million, he added.
