GILGIT: A massive plantation drive is underway across Gilgit-Baltistan with the target of planting 2.2 million saplings to combat climate change impacts, officials said.

GB is the most vulnerable region to climate change impacts, and glacier melting disasters have become frequent in recent years. Secretary Forest Zaid Ahmed said the forest and agriculture departments were providing free saplings to citizens to make the plantation campaign successful.

He said Chief Secretary Abrar Ahmed Mirza and all the administrative secretaries were monitoring the campaign and taking part in the plantation. He appealed to the citizens to take part in the campaign to reduce the negative effects of climate change.

An official of the Forest Department said GB was an environmentally sensitive region and home to thousands of glaciers. The glacier melting floods, glacier lakes outburst events, draught, water scarcity in some areas and weather pattern shifts had affected livelihoods of the people. The official said the government was taking serious steps for adoption and mitigation of climate change impacts.

He said the government was also working on public awareness programmes about climate change impacts.

Two plantation drives, one organised by the Forest Department and the other by Agriculture Department, had already been started.

“Proper data driven work has been carried out with the help of consultancies to assess the impacts of previous years’ plantation, he said.

The official said the chief secretary was monitoring the plantation campaign. He said the government had planted 36 million saplings in the previous years.

He said the afforestation efforts will bring short-term benefits like soil erosion control and increased biodiversity within a decade while carbon sequestration, glacier stabilisation and temperature regulation will take 20-50 years to fully materialise. Ensuring high sapling survival rates, diverse species selection and community participation will maximise these positive impacts, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2025