ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: The government is considering proposals of providing alternative source of energy like LPG, coal and natural gas to refrain people from cutting down trees for fuel purposes.

This was said by Minister of State for Environment Maj Tahir Iqbal (retired) while launching the monsoon tree plantation campaign at Fatima Jinnah Park, F-9, on Saturday. Under the campaign, 39.5 million trees will be planted.

The ceremony was to be attended by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, but due to the last minute change in his schedule, the planting ceremony was performed by the environment minister.

Maj Tahir Iqbal said: “Even our Juniper trees have been destroyed due to the unchecked cutting by refugees.”

He said 26 million cubic metres of wood was being used annually as fuel in Pakistan while another 10 million cubic feet of timber was consumed by furniture industry each year.

He said to meet the growing requirement of timber and wood, “we ought to increase the forest cover by 15 to 20 per cent”. Currently Pakistan has a total forest cover of five per cent, which was too meagre to satisfy timber and fuel wood needs of growing population of the country, he said, and added that this could only be achieved if 20 million saplings were planted each year.

On the directives of the prime minister, the environment ministry was in the process of formulating a project called ‘Afforestation through farmers; a package of incentives’ at an estimated cost of Rs1.15 billion.

Referring to the importance of tree plantation, the minister said it helped in preventing erosion, silting in dams and land sliding in the northern and hilly parts of the country.

The environmental changes, we have witnessed in the recent years, was also due to the increasing deforestation.

He said the government would monitor and seek six-monthly reports from the provinces to measure the success of the campaign.

Last year, the target set for the monsoon tree plantation campaign could not be achieved due to the prolonged drought.

However, this year Allah Almighty has bestowed us with early monsoon rains that has broken the long dry spell all over the country, he said.