Pb Govt For Planting 130 Mln Trees On 99,077 Acres Of Land

LAHORE, (Muzaffargarh.City – 25th Feb, 2018 ) :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. /saa-xl/gmf