PESHAWAR, Nov 1: The NWFP Minister for Forests, Wildlife and Environment, Mohammad Abbass Khan on Thursday unveiled a forest development programme, “NWFP Forest Vision-2025”.

As many as one billion saplings will be planted over an area of two million acres in different areas of the province under the programme.

Details of the programme were revealed and discussed at a workshop held in Peshawar, under the chairmanship of the minister, attended by the officials of forest department and heads of various forest projects besides Mr Khalid Sultan, secretary forests and environment.

The “NWFP Forest Vision 2025”, is an ambitious programme, mainly aimed at enhancing the forest covered area up to 25 per cent, which is currently at 17 per cent of the total area of the province.

While discussing the pros & cons of the plan, Abbass Khan said that the meeting has been convened to dilate upon the finer details of the plan so as to agitate the minds of the forest-related people and fora to come up with innovative ideas and help in giving a practical shape to the programme and make it a success.

He said that result in forest development projects could not be expected in days as it takes years to nurture and mature a sapling. While stressing the need for planning in the forest sector, he said that the forest department was fortunate as it had at its disposal the services of many educated people in forestry whose knowledge and expertise could be utilized in the successful implementation of the plan.

He acknowledged that the target of 25 per cent afforestation was a challenging one, as the department would definitely face multifarious problems especially in the field of protection and preservation of the forests. He, however, hoped that the department will deploy all its energies to achieve the objectives.

He added the objective of preserving forests could only be achieved by the involvement of forest department in community-oriented projects aimed at providing cheap fuel resources to the people who depended for their fuel on forests.

In this respect, he referred to the initiation of small hydel electricity generation programmes in different areas. He also directed the forest department to also help in launching of poverty alleviation projects which would help in controlling deforestation tendencies.

He said the programme should be marketed aggressively to attract donor agencies to invest in forest development projects. He also referred to the enormous wasteland available in the province and adjoining tribal area, which could be utilized for the forestation purpose.

Later on, participants of the workshop discussed the programme in detail and threw light on various aspects of it. Certain viable suggestions were presented on the occasion, to be incorporated in the practical implementation of the programme.

The secretary forests lauded the efforts put in the shaping of the plan and directed the department officers to vigorously pursue the goals enshrined in the master plan.