ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan recently called for enhancing forestation in the county to mitigate the negative effects of climate change as well as promoting the production of exportable agriculture-related products such as honey, olives, avocado, and other fruits and vegetables for wealth creation.
Addressing the launching ceremony of the “Billion Tree Honey” Initiative here, he said with the depleting forest cover and increasing air and water pollution, Pakistan had become the fifth country in the world being affected by climate change.
The initiative—part of the Prime Minister’s vision of a Clean and Green Pakistan, is aimed at promoting tree plantation to support the production of honey in the country under the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP).
“With 70 percent depletion in the country’s forest cover due to the negligence of previous
regimes, one of the big challenges faced by this government is to reverse the situation through various measures such as the initiative of 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme,” Khan said. He said contrary to the past regimes which did not think about humans and coming generations but for the next elections, the present government was fulfilling its obligations of putting the country back on the right track of the clean environment.
The Prime Minister said the initiatives like “Billion Tree Honey” would help protect the forests as the local people, including bee-keepers, would take ownership of the area and not let anyone cut trees due to their financial interests.
Such initiatives supported by the government, he added, would also help promote the culture of enhanced tree plantation for the benefit of the people and the country alike, besides creating employment opportunities. He said the country’s known forests in Kundian (Mianwali District) and Changa Manga (Kasur District) had been devastated due to ill planning and leasing of lands to the people on political grounds in the past.
“Pakistan is bestowed by Allah Almighty with diverse climatic zones due to mountains, plains and coastal lines, so there is a need to tap the natural potential by promoting tree plantation and production of a variety of fruits and vegetables to enhance exports.”
For instance, he said, the areas of Sulaiman Range, at the right bank of Indus River, was best for the planting of precious olive trees, which could help check the country’s annual US$ 3 billion edible oil import bill.
Similarly, he said, fruits like avocado could be produced for export. He, however, added that in order to achieve enhanced exports of fruits and vegetables, particularly in the Middle East, there required quality control and effective branding and marketing of the products.
Earlier, Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul and Special Assistant to the PM on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam highlighted various aspects of the “Billion Tree Honey” Initiative. They said about 10,000 beekeepers were using 300,000 colonies for producing 7,500 metric tons of honey annually. The potential can be enhanced to produce 70,000 metric tons of honey from the same harvest by using modern bee-keeping gears, training on the latest techniques, standardisation/certification of the product, and intensive marketing, they added.
-AVN Report
