ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change of Pakistan was told on Tuesday that 100 million trees will be planted across the country in the next five years.

Briefing the committee, which met at Parliament Lodges with Senator Badini in the chair, Inspector General (IG) Forest Mahmood Nasir said the trees will be planted along side roads and canals while mangrove forests will also be increased.

He said 707 million trees have been planted in the four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas between 2011 and 2016.

The IG said there was no definition of a tree earlier and that it was now agreed that a plant which is at least three metres high is to be considered a tree.

“According to 1992 reports, the country had 5 per cent forest cover,” he said, adding that forestry had been a provincial domain since 1974.

He said monitoring forests is a complex matter as each province follows different standards. However, Pakistan will have a national forest monitoring system in the ongoing year.

Members of the committee expressed concerns over the depletion and contamination of ground water. Officers of the relevant departments told the members of parliament there were several reasons for the depletion of ground water.

Senator Mohammad Ali Khan Saif said it had become a norm for government organisations to blame one another but none of them were taking steps for providing clean drinking water and for reducing environmental pollution.

The committee was also given a briefing on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which is a fund within the framework of UNFCCC, designed to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.

This fund will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing countries using thematic funding windows. It is intended to be the centre piece of efforts to raise climate finance of $100 billion a year by 2020.

The committee directed officials of the climate change ministry that the funds for this project must not be wasted.

“It is common practice to purchase luxury cars with funds from such projects and when donors notice this, they stop the funds,” Senator Saif said.

The committee also postponed the National Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2017 as the mover of the bill, Senator Mian Mohammad Ateeq Sheikh, did not attend the meeting.

Internews