ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday registered a complaint with the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) regarding India’s unlawful incursion into the country and destroying forest areas recognised under the Global Bonn Challenge and are a worldwide valued natural asset, the Ministry of Climate Change said in a statement.

“A brazenly unlawful air incursion into our territory, while hastily fleeing, Indian air force dropped its entire payload onto a pristine reserve forest and an area protected for natural regeneration under our flagship ‘Billion Tree Tsunami’ initiative,” adviser to the prime minister on climate change, Malik Amin Aslam told UNEA.

In his speech before participants from around the world at the fourth UNEA session being held in Kenya, Malik Amin Aslam said that the deplorable “strike” was clearly a strike against nature.

The deplorable ‘strike’ was clearly a strike against nature, Malik Amin Aslam says

It has been duly booked under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial forest act in Pakistan and an independent natural resource damage assessment has already been carried out.

On Feb 26, a protected forest reserve and a globally significant carbon sink in Pakistan became the target of unprovoked aggression, he said.

He said that while Pakistan reserves the right for taking further legal action and for claiming compensation and retribution for this act, it is raising the mater at this forum to give a voice to the voiceless — the fallen trees of Jabba-Massar Forest Reserve — which became the silent victims of this shameful attack on nature.

“We also want the world to know that Pakistan values its nature, and especially values its trees and forests,” the advisor said in his statement.

He stressed on the need for strengthening international laws and commitments of the global community to take cognizance of such offences against nature.

In this regard, Pakistan welcomed the work done by the International Law Commission for defining the principles of environment in relation to armed conflicts, especially draft principles nine and 13 which extend to protected areas such as the affected Jabba-Massar Forest Reserve in Pakistan.

“We also intend to take it up at the UN (Sixth Committee) to urgently and clearly define the term ‘Eco-terrorism’ — especially as it relates to incidents such as this strike against nature. Furthermore, any person authorising such a strike is not a ‘champion’ of the earth but belongs to the earth’s ‘hall of shame’,” Malik Amin Aslam said.

Pakistan’s billion tree plantation was recognized worldwide and especially when the World Economic Forum urged other countries to follow the examples set by Pakistan of planting trees to counter the impact of global warming, said the Ministry of Climate in its statement.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2019