PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had launched an ambitious afforestation campaign – Billion Trees Tsunami – almost a year ago, in February 2014 to be exact, but the forest department is still busy developing nurseries.

The officials executing the project said that around 160,000 saplings had been planted over 150 hectares of land in Malakand division against the actual target of 30.25 million saplings over 30,000 hectares of land every year.

Special assistant to the chief minister Syed Mohammad Ishtiaq said that the announcement of growing one billion trees in four years was made without proper calculation because the forest department did not have its own nurseries to provide saplings for the campaign.

Forest dept still developing nurseries a year after drive’s launch

“That was an emotional announcement, which was made without looking into realities,” he told Dawn.

The special assistant said that the forest department did not have sufficient nurseries to ensure supply of plants for this giant drive.

He said that additional manpower was also required for plantation campaign and maintenance of fresh grown plants.

Syed Ishtiaq said that over six million saplings had been grown since execution of the project while officials of the forest department said that around 160,000 trees had be planted so far.

He said that purchasing saplings from the open market would be very expensive and that the department had set up 642 own nurseries to provide saplings for the campaign.

The special assistant said that the plantation drive would resume in Peshawar next month and would be extended to other districts.

PTI chairman Imran Khan had launched the Billion Trees Tsunami campaign in February 2014 under the umbrella of Green Growth Initiative of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa meant for ‘greening the growth and development’ of the province.

An amount of Rs1 billion has been allocated in the Annual Development Programme 2014-15 for it. The project’s estimated cost is Rs14.03 billion.

To translate its election manifesto into reality, the PTI orchestrated an ambitious Green Growth Initiative of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It has been planned to increase the forest covered area from 17 per cent to 20 per cent.

In addition, through enrichment planting, the tree cover in the existing forests will be enhanced from 20 per cent to 30 per cent by 2018, said a statement, which was released in the launching ceremony.

Apart from other initiatives, it was also planned to establish an autonomous National Parks Authority in the province to develop proper management plan for each national park in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

However, the programme, which was launched with great pomp and show, is progressing at a slow pace due to financial constraints and shortage of nurseries and manpower.

An official dealing with the project said that the forest department had made arrangements to carry out plantation on 6,000 hectares of land during the current year, while the target was to plant trees over 15,000 hectares area for which the forest department needed 14.21 million plants.

He said currently, four to five million plants were available at the government’s own nurseries and that additional plants would likely to be purchased from private nurseries.

About financial requirements, the official said that Rs486 million had been released to the department against Rs886 million required for plantation campaign to be started in February. He said funds had been transferred to 28 forest divisions in the province for the launch of the campaign.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2015

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