President plants Araucaria, kicks off Spring Plantation Campaign 2014
President Mamnoon Hussain on Tuesday launched the spring tree plantation campaign by planting a sapling of Araucaria Excelsa at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The president urged all concerned for concerted efforts not only to protect the existing forests but to enhance forest area to achieve the goal of sustainable social and economic development besides keeping the environment clean and bringing down pollution levels.
The president expressed confidence that the Spring Plantation Campaign 2014 would further motivate the people and would serve to raise greater awareness among public about the importance of growing trees.
The president urged the nation to make Pakistan green and environment friendly by actively participating in the national cause of planting more trees.
“It is our national duty to grow more and more trees and protect existing forests so as to ensure climatic amelioration, water and soil preservation, protection of wildlife and continuous supply of wood and other forest products from our own resources”, the president said in a message on the occasion.
The president highlighted the immense importance of forests as key component of Pakistan’s natural resources and called upon the concerned to focus on involving all segments of society especially the children in this campaign so as to ensure its maximum success. He said that trees and forests were an essential part of the ecosystems regulating water supplies and maintaining ecological balance and clean environment.
The president also urged all the provincial governments for enhanced efforts and innovative approaches to stop depletion of forests and reverse the trend by strengthening the existing forest monitoring system. He added that forestry was a provincial subject and the 18th Amendment had further delegated this responsibility to the provincial governments to take care of their forests resources through implementing feasible policies and programmes. He assured that federal government would continue to provide all facilitation to provinces in managing forest resources through financial and technical support.
The tree planting ceremony was also attended by senior officials of Ministry of Climate Change, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Aiwan-e-Sadr and other relevant departments.
CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal apprised the president that tree plantation had been made an integral part of CDA Master Plan and CDA had set a target of planting 0.3 million trees during the current spring season. He said that CDA participated in National Tree Plantation Drive in each planting season and involved general public, educational institutions, NGOs, government employees, citizens and traders.
