President Dr Arif Alvi has urged the youth to play their part to make Pakistan “Clean and Green” by planting more trees to preserve the country’s natural beauty. He said that it was essential to plant more trees to help mitigate the adverse impacts of Climate Change as well as provide clean and healthy environment to our people and succeeding generations. The President expressed these views after planting a sapling at the premises of the Presidency under the Monsoon Tree Plantation Drive-2021, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, today. SAPM on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam, Minister of State for Climate Change, Ms Zartaj Gul Wazir, senior officials of the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), volunteers and students from various educational institutions participated in the tree plantation drive. SAPM on Climate Change briefed the President about the Monsoon Tree Plantation Drive 2021 under the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP). It was informed that under Pakistan’s largest Monsoon Plantation Drive-2021, over 500 million trees would be planted across the country including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan in different phases. He apprised that during Phase-I of TBTTP, from 2018 to 2023, 3.296 billion trees would be planted which would greatly help in conserving biodiversity, increasing forest cover and mitigating the impacts of Global Warming. Addressing the ceremony, the President said that Pakistan was blessed with immense beauty and natural resources and the youth needed to play their role in keeping their surroundings clean and green. He said that the scenic natural resorts of the Northern Areas of the country attracted millions of tourists who needed to be educated to keep the environment clean and refrain from spreading pollution. He stated that Pakistan’s ecosystem was under persistent threat of depletion due to Climate Change, Global Warming and deforestation and collective efforts were needed to plant maximum number of trees to enhance the forest cover in the country. He added that Climate Change and Global Warming were causing glacial melts and flash floods in various parts of the world and the challenge needed to be overcome by planting more trees and adopting environment friendly practices. Earlier, the President planted a sapling to mark the beginning of the tree plantation event at Aiwan-e-Sadr. In order to support Government’s tree plantation drive, students from various educational institutions volunteered to plant almost 10,000 saplings inside Presidency’s premises to increase the forest cover of the country.
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