ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Ministry of Climate Change is likely to propose a legislation to ensure more than 100 percent tree plantation in advance to replace chopped trees during the construction work.
“We cannot protect the country from devastating impacts of global warming-induced climate change, as long as our forests continue to remain chopped down. Forests are the best way to achieve enhanced climate resilience against fallouts of the climate change impacts,” said an official of the ministry.
The official said that Minister for Climate Change had asked the Senate Committee to prepare proper legislation for plantation of 100 times more trees that should be planted in advance to replace trees damaged during any construction work in any part of the country.
He said according to United Nations charter, a country should have forest cover of 12 percent but unfortunately Pakistan has only 5 percent.
He said the ministry is also considering importing a technology that implants complete trees on other place.
“We are trying to get that technology to save trees during construction work,” he said.
He said that international studies show that deforestation and land degradation accounts for a major share in overall global carbon emissions annually.
“Most people assume that global warming is caused by burning oil, gas and coal. But in fact between 25 and 30 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year or estimated 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide – is caused by deforestation, mainly the cutting and burning of forests, every year.
However, he said, the same amount of carbon climate-altering carbon dioxide gases released from fossil fuel burning through any source can be removed from the atmosphere to stabilize the climate change by halting deforestation, he underlined.
Quoting studies of the UN’s Food and Agriculture (FAO), he said that trees are 50 percent carbon. But when they are chopped down or burned, the carbon dioxide they store makes its way back into the air. Besides, around 13 million hectares of forests worldwide are lost annually, almost entirely in the tropics, most of it occurs in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
“Controlling deforestation in the country is not possible without increasing access to renewable and alternative energy sources, particularly for cooking and heating in households, reducing occurrence of land erosion and landslides by strengthening forested mountain slopes with vegetation cover and increasing public awareness about positive effects of forests on overall environment, human health and biodiversity.”
He also asked the provincial and federal representatives of the forest departments to join the climate change ministry’s efforts for implanting national forest policy that aims to halt deforestation and inject new life in the ailing forestry sector.
Source: APP
