ISLAMABAD: Dec 9: The environment ministry will soon launch a project costing Rs12 billion aimed at achieving six per cent afforestation target by 2015.

This was stated by caretaker Federal Minister for Environment Syed Wajid Hussain Bukhari in a meeting with a group of environment protection specialists here on Sunday.

Under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Pakistan has to ensure that six per cent of its total area is covered by forests.

The environment ministry is making efforts to achieve the target, he said.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Pakistan has very low forest cover of less than three per cent of the total land area, but their great variety reflects the country’s great physiographic and climatic contrasts.

Pakistan’s forest and woodland types include littoral and swamp forests, tropical dry deciduous forests, tropical thorn forests, sub-tropical broad-leaved evergreen forests, sub- tropical pine forests, Himalayan moist temperate forests, Himalayan dry temperate forests, sub-alpine forests and alpine scrub. Coniferous forests predominate while the NWFP has around 40 per cent of the country’s forests.

The FAO determines forests in a country both by the presence of trees and the absence of other predominant land uses. The trees should reach a minimum height of five metres.

It excludes from the process those trees which are planted in the agricultural farms, for example fruit trees and agroforestry systems.

The term also excludes trees in urban parks and gardens.

While talking to environment specialists, Mr Bukhari said the unexpected weather changes from the last few years had greatly affected Pakistan’s economic, social and environmental conditions. He said summers were getting hotter and prolonged compared to previous years resulting in water shortages.

The caretaker minister also pointed out that there had been an utter lack of water management amidst a lot of water politics, delaying the construction of intensely needed dams for power and irrigation. Installed capacities of both these sectors were fast depleting and rapidly refusing to meet the country’s individual, industrial and agricultural requirements.