- Nothing groundbreaking about it
Prime Minister Imran Khan launched another tree plantation drive under his leadership on Sunday, the original one being the ‘Billion Tree Tsunami Project’ that began in 2014 in KP, which was the only province the PTI won in the 2013 general elections. While the cause is noble, it is hardly a groundbreaking original idea. Almost every PM before Mr. Khan has done it, with a photo op to boot. Mian Nawaz Sharif launched a ‘National Green Day’ in 2017 aimed at planting 100 million trees while Yousaf Raza Gilani went for a more modest 50 million saplings when he was prime minister. The primary motivation behind such campaigns is to gain political mileage given the nobility of the cause and how it positively affects the environment. But one needs to be wary about the claims that are made about how many trees are actually planted. Planting a sapling and distributing seeds being counted as a tree coming to fruition, something that has been widely done under the Billion Tree Tsunami Project is misleading. By its own admission, the KP government has counted the natural regeneration of trees, which accounts for 60% of the supposed billion trees, as its own achievement. It is also quite difficult to accurately quantify the success of these plantation drives making it near impossible to give full credit to the efforts of one particular government. The National Accountability Bureau opening an inquiry into KP’s billion tree project after detecting losses of Rs 462 million through embezzlement and misappropriation of funds raises questions about the credibility and effectiveness of the campaign
That being said, one has to appreciate that PM Imran Khan, leveraging his following of the youth, has motivated a lot of volunteers to contribute to the latest plantation drive. If the savagery of the ongoing summer rainy season is any indication, climate change is a very real threat that is bound to get worse each passing year. Afforestation has the potential to reverse global warming and climate change, improve air quality and generate employment opportunities. By limiting soil erosion, trees have the capacity to indirectly reduce the impact of flooding thereby protecting crops and limiting loss of life. There is nothing wrong with having tree plantation drives so long as they are executed responsibly with transparency and oversight to generate tangible results
