ISLAMABAD: The federal government has set a target of planting 159 million trees throughout the country in the next three months of spring season, starting from February.
Climate Change Federal Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan, chairing a high-level inter-ministerial and inter-provincial meeting, approved the target after provincial forest departments and other federal ministries including the Capital Development Authority (CDA), National Highway Authority (NHA), Pakistan Ordinance Factory (POF) and Heavy Industry Texila.
While giving a break-up of the spring tree plantation target, Forest Pakistan Inspector General Syed Mahmood Nasir at the Climate Change Ministry informed the meeting that as per targets set by the provincial and federal governments as well as concerned departments, the highest target of 123 million tree would be planted during the upcoming spring season by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Forest Department throughout the province.
During the season, Punjab will plant 18.09 million trees, Sindh 7.1 million trees, Balochistan 1.5 million trees, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 1.3 million trees, Gilgit-Baltistan 1.1 million trees, FATA four million, CDA 0.3 million, NHA 0.125 million, Ministry of Defence 700,000 trees, Heavy Industry Texila 5,000, Pakistan Ordinance Factory 15,000, Pakistan Tobacco Company 1.5 million and IUCN 250,000 trees.