Pb Govt for planting 130 mln trees on 99,077 acres of land

LAHORE, Feb 25 (APP):South Punjab Forest Company (SPFC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tahir
Rasheed on Sunday said company with the help of private sector will plant
130 million trees over an area of 99,077 acres of forest land, in five districts
of the south Punjab.
Talking to APP CEO Tahir Rasheed said that, commercial forestry through
a proper management system could play a key role in controlling environment
pollution in addition to reorganizing wood industry and saving foreign exchange.
He said that with completion of the project, around Rs 240 billion would be
added to economy and government would earn Rs 20 billion. The project would
also help to reduce logging pressure on natural forests of the country, he
added.
In this connection the SPFC had accomplished feasibilities
of different plans, adding the work on tree plantation would be launched
by April this year.
Rasheed said the Punjab government had taken a landmark
step to reduce deforestation in south Punjab and providing
sustainable wood to wood-based industry.
He said that according to the vision of Chief Minister
Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, forests department had been
strengthened and was formulating comprehensive recommendations
for making tree plantation across the province.
He said that Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh,
Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan would be brought under forest
cover, through the project.
The company was mandated to seek private investment on
produce sharing basis with minimum 15 per cent of SPFC’s share
for afforestation and range management under Public Private
Partnership (PPP)’s Build Operate Transfer (BOT) mode for a
period of 15 years, he said.
Tahir Rasheed, while appreciating the Green Pakistan
Programme (GPP), said that it was a successful initiative
which would help improving forest cover of Pakistan, leading
to conservation of wildlife.
“This programme will help to adapt and mitigate impact
of climate change in Pakistan, as the country was highly
vulnerable to the phenomenon”, he added.