ISLAMABAD: Three international conservation organisations have formed a consortium for the monitoring of Prime Minister’s 10 Billion Tsunami Programme being implemented across the country.

Talking to media after meeting representatives from International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), prime minister’s adviser on climate change Malik Amin Aslam said: “Independent monitoring of the largest afforestation programme, which has been hailed globally, is inevitable for its success.”

At a meeting held at the climate change ministry, the three international bodies agreed to form the consortium and also presented a ‘proposed’ monitoring plan to the adviser for concurrence on the monitoring mechanism.

Mr Aslam suggested that the monitoring plan should be shared with the provincial governments and their viewpoints incorporated in it.

He called for a need to specify roles and responsibilities of the three organisations on how the monitoring plan would work. He also suggested involving Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) in the monitoring process as a key stakeholder.

“The immediate task should be to conduct sessions of all field formations of provincial forest departments for standardising data collection procedures,” he said.

The plantation campaign has been acknowledged by the World Economic Forum. The forum has suggested that increasing tree cover was one of the best solutions to counter the impacts of climate change.

The government has approved over Rs125 billion for planting 10 billion saplings over the next five years.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2019