PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Thursday declared the Billion Tree Tsunami a big success saying the major afforestation initiative helped increase the forest covered area in the province by two per cent, rehabilitated 33 per cent of degraded forests, and provided hvelihoods to more numerous families in remote and inaccessible areas.

He was talking to reporters after inaugurating the Spring Tree Plantation Campaign 2017.

Adviser to the chief minister Mushtaq Ghani, environment secretary Nazar Hussain and relevant officials were present on the occasion.

The CM said the project had achieved over 60 per cent of the targets and helped increase over Rs4,000 billion worth of assets and thus, drawing wide acclaim.

He said the government had given the forest department necessary resources to fight `timber mafia`.

`We have recovered more than 57,000 kanals of encroached lands and reduced the timber cutting rate significantly. Our efforts are meant for both conservation and development of forests,` he said.

Mr. Khattak said the previous legislation for the disposal of windfall trees had reduced the forest area and therefore, his government legislated to ensure scientific cutting and growth of forests.

He urged the people to play due role in the success of the Green Pakistan Campaign.

TREES PLANTATION DRIVE: The Spring Tree Plantation Campaign 2017 on Thursday began in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Under the campaign, the forest department will plant 211.645 million saplings of local andindigenous species with the help of stakeholders.

The National Green Day was observed in KP in the day with the inauguration of trees plantation campaigns at district and provincial levelsinKP.

According to a relevant official, the foreign department has made a comprehensive plan to achieve the target by involving farmers, people, village development committees, educational organisations, defence forces, civil society and f arm forestry organisations.

He said against the target of 211.645 million, 55.998 million saplings would be planted in Southern Circle consisting of Peshawar, Kohat, DI Khan and Bannu divisions, 89.657 million in Northern Forest Region-II, Abbottabad, and 65.99 million in Malakand Forest Region-III.

As many as 11.7 million saplings will be planted with the help of the people, 35.855 million through farm forestry, 48.757 million through village development committees, 0.381 million through defence forces and 4.596 million through educational institutions.

The of ficial said a new policy had been made to involve private sector and local communities for the plantation and conservation of forests, while necessary changes had been made to the planting strategy.

He said a taskforce had been established to carve green growth strategy to help promote forestry and bio-diversity in the province.

`The taskforce has identified renewable energy,sustainableforestmanagement,energy and biodiversity conservation, climate change and resilience, and biodiversity conservation as major focus areas for promoting Green Growth in KP,` he said.

The official said to supplement natural regeneration in 150,000 hectares under stock forests annually through active participation of local community, special focus was being given on the bringing of additional area underplantation in the next five years to raise forestry cover in the province.

He said efforts were underway to improve forestry research and training and build the capacityofheld staffin the province.

The of ficial said 58.444 million saplings were planted during the last monsoon tree plantation campaign in KP.

He said the department had directed forest officers to visit educational institutions and attend radio and TV programmes to highlight importance of forestry in the socio-economic development.

The official said if anyone planted at least five saplings and looked after it, then the province would have one billion new plants in a year. -APP