News Details

23/08/2017

The Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has said that when they announced the Billion Tree Tsunami in the Province, his opponents made fun of it and ridiculed their commitment...

The Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has said that when they announced the Billion Tree Tsunami in the Province, his opponents made fun of it and ridiculed their commitment but today not only the target had been achieved ahead of the deadline but at a cost ,billions of rupees less than the estimated. Addressing a function to celebrate the exceeding of the Bonn Challenge Tuesday he said that the achievement was made possible by the leadership, commitment and guidance of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and the tenacious efforts of all those involved in the process. He said that afforestation had been always given the lowest priority in the past and when their Task Force was assigned the job, it was found that in all ,there could be produced just three million saplings a year in the Province and with all their efforts just twenty to twenty-and- a-half million saplings could be produced in the first year. However when the communities were involved by motivating them to plant saplings in their homes and small open places it was a big break through. Again, he said that the poor communities were advanced small loans thus by the 2nd year the plantation crossed 300 million saplings. He pointed out that the green jobs creation output of the Billion Tree Tsunami is a new and unique window of opportunities for the whole world and should be internationally acclaimed. Before their government, the budget of the afforestation and environmental conservation was limited to just 300 million but his government doubled it not only than that of the Province’ annual but double than that of the Federal Government included. He said that though a total of Rs.22 billion had been allocated to the program but thanks God, it has been achieved with just Rs.14 billion costs so far incurred. It is worth-mentioning that KP is the first of the over 50 countries to have met the Bonn Challenge while it has been appreciated by the WWF too which had audited it from various angles. Mr.Khattak said that on the one hand transparency had been ensured in the execution of this program while on the other hand the powerful timber mafia has also been head on confronted and a total ban on even the so called “wind fall” timber cutting imposed in the Province. He also said that though the deadline to meet the challenge was 2020 but thanks God it has been achieved in 2017. He promised that all those exceptionally contributed to the achievement would be properly rewarded. The rate of survival as confirmed by IUCN and WWF is also 85 per cent while it would create over 70 thousand jobs for the local communities. The Function was also addressed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan, IUCN Chief in Pakistan Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, Secretary Forest KP Nazar Hussain Shah while the message of the Global Chief of IUCN appreciating these successes Mr.Zain was also played on the occasion. <><