PAKISTAN is staring climate change in the face, and mitigating its fallout is arguably an even more urgent battle than winning the fight against corruption. As per the most recent rankings on the Climate Global Risk Index, Pakistan comes in eighth among the countries most impacted by climate change between 2000 and 2019.

On Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the spring plantation 2021 campaign that covers 51 Miyawaki urban forest sites in Lahore, with the first such forest being planted in Jilani park. On the occasion, Mr Khan exhorted his fellow Pakistanis to join his government’s countrywide 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme to help cut down smog and reverse environmental pollution. Speaking of Lahore, the premier said that one consequence of the city’s expansion in all directions was that it had lost 70pc of its forest cover. The urban forest campaign’s slogan — “Plant before it’s too late” — captures the urgency of the situation.

The loss of forest cover exacerbates the effects of climate change, opening the door to flash floods and soil erosion, thereby lowering crop yields, destroying local economies and disrupting food supply patterns on a wider scale. Pakistan has only 5.7pc forest cover as opposed to the recommended 25pc. At between 0.2 and 0.5pc, this country has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world and the second highest in the region after Afghanistan. Expanding urbanisation, industrialisation, an increasing population and a powerful, politically well-connected timber mafia form a lethal combination that is stripping the land of its precious forest cover.

The PTI launched the Billion Tree Tsunami project in response to global warming soon after coming to power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2013. That green initiative, which the government claimed in 2019 had led to a 6.3pc increase in the country’s forest cover, was followed by the even more ambitious 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme. These efforts have brought into sharp focus environmental concerns that were earlier largely ignored by political parties in this country. The recalibration of priorities was sorely needed and has been widely appreciated in a world racing to meet the challenge posed by climate change. Other leaders have started similar campaigns and the World Economic Forum has launched the One Trillion Trees Initiative.

The massive scale of the tree plantation project has, perhaps inevitably, given rise to questions as to its effectiveness and viability. Last year, NAB approved four investigations into the provincial-level Billion Tree Tsunami project on allegations of misuse of authority, lack of survival of plants, embezzlement of funds, etc. Critics also point out that the timber mafia has managed to continue its illegal work unhindered because the implementation of the law is lax and the lobbies linked with the racket are extremely powerful. Without plugging this gap, tree plantation drives — however important in their own right — are unlikely to achieve their full potential.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2021