Urban forestry must be promoted to combat climate change, experts say

Lahore: Environmentalists say that to control rising temperatures and air pollution, more trees will have to be planted and urban forestry should be encouraged. Provides cooling equal to

Ali Ijaz, Deputy Director of Environment Protection Department, Lahore, while talking to Express News, said that trees play a very important role in reducing temperature and controlling air pollution. At a time when we are also facing the threat of heat wave, it is important to plant more trees to combat it. Trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere but also reduce other greenhouse gases.

He said that at present this is the issue of the whole world and there is talk of planting more and more trees. Trees are a cheap and easy way to protect the environment and climate change. He gave an example that if you travel on a road where there are many trees and another road where there is concrete shade, the temperature difference between the two roads will be more than 10 degrees.

The first Miyawaki forest was planted in Lahore in 2001 to control the severity of weather and air pollution. The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) had planted about 50 small Miyawaki forests in Lahore which are growing rapidly but now the plan has been changed.

According to the sources, the reasons for changing the Miyawaki Forestry project are also political and there were complaints of corruption in this project, which are being investigated by Punjab Anti-Corruption. For this reason, further work on this project has been stopped. The reason for this is the high cost of the project.

Sajjad Ali, a young man busy studying in the shade of trees in Lahore’s Jam Shireen Park, said that he belongs to Wahari but he has been in Lahore for the past four years for his education. He said that it is difficult to live without air conditioner in houses and flats due to heat. He lives with a few friends in a flat with no AC facilities, so he comes here to the park to study.

Miyawaki forests have been planted in Jamsheerin Park and Jilani Park (Race Course). Express News team checked the temperature of Jilani Park and Jamsheerin Park at 2 pm when the general temperature of Lahore city was up to 45 degrees Celsius, it was 34 to 35 degrees.

Speaking to Express News, Director General PHA Mohammad Tahruto said that Miyawaki forests have been working very well and the results have also been excellent, but this technique is somewhat expensive, so now urban forestry has been given priority instead of Miyawaki.

Urban forestry is also planting the same amount of trees because the space in cities is less and more trees have to be planted so the urban forestry method will be successful.

He said that currently the forest area in Lahore is only one percent, the forest area must be increased to at least 15 percent to reduce the temperature and reduce environmental pollution. He also said that the government is paying special attention to plantations, their maintenance and monitoring.

According to experts, urban forestry has to be promoted to combat climate change. It should be made mandatory for every citizen to plant at least one sapling in a year and then take care of it.