President Dr Arif Alvi Saturday urged the young generation to play their dynamic role in the government’s ongoing massive Ten Billion Tree Tsunami campaign and reverse the degenerating effects of the global warming and environmental pollution.
Addressing a ceremony of monsoon tree plantation drive held here at the green area adjacent to Aiwan e Sadr, the President said that the onus to keep the environment clean and green now rested on the young generation and expressed the confidence that they would carry this burden and secure the country’s future.
He stressed upon adoption of environment friendly habits at the country’s scenic and tourists’ spots by properly disposing off and trash the garbage.
On the occasion, the President along with Begum Samina Alvi also planted saplings of Chir pine (Pinus Roxburghii) in the monsoon season under Ten Billion Tree Tsunami programme.
Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, a large number of citizens and young students also attended the ceremony.
The President observed that young generations had to play real role in the tree plantation drive as it had always been the young people that changed future course of different nations. Sharing his past experiences prior to becoming the President, he said that they had distributed 100,000 saplings among different households of Karachi, besides, they also gave away 100,000 seeds laden pencils among the younger students asking them to plant them in pots, so that plants could sprout out as part of their activities to create motivation.
The President noted that human footprints had proved heavy on nature as the indiscriminate use of pesticides and insecticides had already eliminated a large number of insects which played vital role in the pollination process.
He also lauded the efforts of both the ministers in spearheading the tree plantation drive.
The President said that the government’s efforts and strategy over Covid 19 and tree plantation drive had proved very successful which was acknowledged by the world.
He also underlined the need of keeping tourists spots clean and green in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan as recently, these places had attracted millions of tourists. Earlier, SAPM Malik Amin Aslam briefed the President about the ongoing monsoon tree plantation drive under Ten Billion Tree Tsunami. He said that about 500 million saplings would be planted across Pakistan as a target set for monsoon plantation under 10BTT.
Meanwhile, Governor Sindh Imran Ismail Saturday inaugurated monsoon tree plantation drive at Governor’s House as a part of the “Clean Green Pakistan Initiative” under the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami programme to Promote Environmental Sustainability and Biodiversity. The event was held in collaboration with Dawat-e-Islami Pakistan.
He said planting trees made the environment cleaner and also reduced air pollution. He stressed that the tree plantation is joint responsibility of all to create a healthy environment for the coming generations.”Only with healthy ecosystems we can enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change and stop the collapse of biodiversity”, he observed.
Imran Ismail said that the tree plantation program was also generating thousands of new employment opportunities. He observed that under the government’s flagship 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project, more than 85,000 people have already found green jobs, during last year, including in guarding forests, eco-tourism and planting saplings, at the time when pandemic lockdowns left many daily wage earners without work. “The Federal Government is targeting to create 200,000 new green jobs by the end of year 2021 under its ecological protection and restoration projects”, he added.
The campaign includes restoring mangroves and forests, as well as planting trees in urban settings, including schools, colleges, public parks and green belts. “30 different trees had already been planted, spread over one acre, under the urban forest plantation campaign, at Governor House; out of which 12 trees were of fruits and 18 of other species”, he added.
