Environment Ministry implementing mega forestry projects: Afridi

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi said on Saturday that the Ministry of Environment was implementing mega forestry projects in all the provinces for preservation and expansion of forest wealth in the country.

He stated this at the concluding ceremony of the 2nd three-day international conference on “Biodiversity is Our Life”, organised by the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) and Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur.

The ceremony was attended by Shah Abdul Latif University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nilofer Sheikh, Agriculture University Peshawar Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khan Bahadur Marwat, the Mississippi University Prof Dr Wahid ud din, IG Forest Mahmood Nasir, the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Director Dr Raza Bhatti, students and notables of local community.

Speaking at the conference the minister said the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) was an important outcome of this COP-10, for which, the Ministry of Environment was working to finalise the ABS legislation, as soon as possible. Shah Abdul Latif University would also be involved in the consultative process. He said that fast developments in Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), in particular the Cancun agreement, provided tremendous opportunities to increase forest carbon credits, besides conserving biological diversity. The REDD carbon credits would help bring handsome foreign exchange, he said, adding,“In order to avail optimum potential of REDD, it is needed to work collectively, as there are many political, social and scientific challenges which we have to address at the beginning.”

Afridi further said that to achieve the targets of national forest policy, concrete measures were being adopted through provincial forest departments to update the knowledge of foresters and enable them to meet the scientific challenges, including calculation of forest carbon stocks and MRV (Measurable, Reportable, Verifiable of carbon emissions reductions) systems, to monitor forest cover changes.

Federal Minister for Labour and Religious Affairs Khursheed Ahmed Shah while addressing on the occasion said, “It is the obligation of everyone to play his role for preservation of biodiversity, because its the beauty of life and the planet.” He lauded the role of Shah Abdul Latif University and Centre for Biodiversity in dissemination of knowledge and capacity building of stakeholders to preserve the nature.