ISLAMABAD: The Climate Change Ministry has approved a target to plant around 109 million trees across the country during monsoon. The target to plant 109 million trees includes 14.2 million trees which will be planted under the prime minister’s five-year ‘Green Pakistan Progamme’ to be launched in August this year, said Mohammad Saleem, Climate Change Ministry Media and Communications deputy director, during a high-level inter-ministerial and inter-provincial meeting here on Wednesday with Climate Change Minister Zahid Hamid in the chair. The meeting was attended by provincial forest departments, federal ministries, National Highway Authority, Pakistan Ordinance Factory, Heavy Industry Taxilla and other government department concerned. Giving break up of the spring tree plantation target, Forest Inspector General Syed Mahmood Nasir told the meeting that 13 million trees would be planted during the ongoing monsoon by the Punjab Forest Department. During the season, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will plant 75 million trees, Sindh 12 million trees, Balochistan 0.7 million trees, Azad Jammu and Kashmir three million trees, FATA 4.1 million trees, Defence Ministry one million trees, Heavy Industry Taxilla 1,000 trees, Pakistan Ordinance Factory 7,000 trees and IUCN 200,000 trees, he said. The forest inspector general told the participants that around 208 million trees, under a tree plantation drive, had been planted across the country and survival of the trees planted during the season was more than 70 percent. The minister urged the representatives of provincial forest departments to join federal government’s efforts to make successful the prime minister’s programme for forest regeneration. “The Green Pakistan Programme is aimed at protecting the country and its people from devastating impacts of climate change which have witnessed increase in intensity and frequency over recent years,” he told the participants. He said that forests are the best enemy of climate change and an effective way to boost the country’s climate change resilience against negative fallouts of the climate change. Briefing the meeting, Climate Change Secretary Syed Abu Ahmad Akif said that a letter was sent to the respective provincial governments to roll out plans for implementing the Green Pakistan Programme at the earliest. “Through the letter, the ministry has conveyed to the provincial governments the significance of the Green Pakistan Programme for sustainable socio-economic development of the country and coping with climate change-induced disasters; particularly floods, heatwaves, landslides, land and river erosions, cyclones, dust storms and desertification,” Abu Akif highlighted. However, he urged the provincial forest officials to push their respective authorities to expedite work on hammering out the project plans so that funds approved by the prime minister for the Green Programme could be released in a timely manner. The secretary said that the country lacks resilience to cope with climate risks, particularly floods and torrential rains, which have become frequent due to global warming, without increasing tree cover. “Forests hold back floodwater by nearly 72 hours and reduce intensity of the deluge water, lower chances of deaths and damages to roads, building infrastructures, bridges as well as standing crops from being washed away or wiped out,” he argued. Later, the forest inspector general said that all-out efforts should be taken to take full benefit of the four-month long monsoon by planting trees on a large scale. “The wet spring season is expected to provide trillions of litre water for the seedling to grow fast and hold their grip on soil strongly, he underlined.