ISLAMABAD:Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Tuesday said that starting from today the week-long visit of the Saudi delegation for knowledge-sharing would formally lead to new groundbreaking collaboration on Green Saudi Initiative, opening new period of the global ‘Green Diplomacy’ being spearheaded by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Speaking at a high-level joint media briefing with head of the delegation Chief Executive Officer (CEO) National Centre for Vegetation Cover and Combating Desertification, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Dr Khaled bin Abdullah Al-Abdulqadir, Amin Aslam welcomed the Saudi delegation, saying the Pak-Saudi joint working in green areas under bilateral green partnership would unfold a new chapter of cordial ties between the two brotherly countries.
According to a press release, Malik Amin Aslam stressed that under the joint cooperation, efforts would be taken to boost climate resilience, environmental development and protection of various socio-economic sectors from the adverse impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and rapidly expanding desertification.
“This is the new Pakistan’s green facet envisioned by the Prime Minister that has propped up during the times of COVID-19 pandemic with 5.37 percent GDP growth. The Economist has ranked Pakistan among the top three countries in the world with the expanding base of the national economy during the times of pandemic,” the SAPM remarked.
It was because of the successful nature conservation and ecosystem restoration endeavours under the world-acclaimed Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Plantation project of the country, he said Pakistan was declared Asia Pacific Forestry Champion by the UN Environment Programme.
“Pakistan has been declared a model of forestry to be replicated by Asia,” Amin Aslam informed. He mentioned that the Saudi delegation has arrived to learn from Pakistan’s experience in forestry, adding, “They will visit our national parks, mangroves, and Ten Billion plantation sites across the country.”
The SAPM offered the head of the Saudi delegation that Pakistan wanted to offer its experience in forestry to chip in its contribution to the massive Saudi Green Initiative, whereas this green collaboration between both the countries was propped up by robust green leaderships and visions of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Addressing the press conference, head of Saudi delegation Dr Khalid bin Abdullah said that he was extremely happy to be in Pakistan on a visit to experience practical knowledge about implementation of the globally-acclaimed Ten Billion Tree Tsunami and other green initiatives of Pakistan.
He highlighted that the Saudi government had launched a target of 10 billion trees in the Kingdom under the Saudi Green Initiative to restore, conserve, and sustainably manage one billion hectares of land by 2040.
“The Saudi Green initiative aims to plant 10 billion trees – the same as rehabilitating 200 million hectares of degraded land. The target also represents 4 per cent of the global drive to reverse land degradation and 1 per cent of the global effort to plant one trillion trees,” he elaborated.
He added, “As part of the plan, 30 per cent of the kingdom- or 600,000 square kilometres- will be protected areas and efforts will be made to protect coastal environments.”
“All these green initiatives are for greater collaboration between two sides (Pakistan and Saudi Arabia). Pakistan’s green Initiatives are globally praised and we wanted to see it on the ground and visit in person and see the plantation sites of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Plantation project”, he opined.
He highlighted that the Saudi government had envisioned to enhance its national parks cover and push with environmental conservation for sustainability of the desert country and stave off growing impacts of climate change on various socio-economic sectors. Dr Khalid said the focus of the plantation would be indigenous species that were climate adaptable as KSA has 2,600 native species of such trees.
Responding to various media queries, the SAPM said that the visit was part of the technical group created after the memorandum of understanding (MoU) inked last year in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia (KSA) for collaboration under Saudi Green Initiative.
“The KSA delegation wants to study Pakistan’s on-ground initiatives whereas in the next phase a joint working group will be created to spearhead the partnership under the Saudi Green Initiative”, he added.
Malik Amin Aslam also presented a souvenir of Billion Tree Honey to the Saudi delegation and said, “the Billion Tree Honey is sweet like the cordial brotherly Pak-Saudi relations.”