Karachi : The National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) and PTC is all set to launch its plantation drive next month to meet the target of planting a total of 100,000 trees and plants in Karachi in 2024 in partnership with two other concerned non-governmental organizations.
The both NGO,s signed a memorandum of understanding with the Plant a Million for community (PTC) to jointly launch the massive tree plantation campaign in Karachi. NFEH President Naeem Qureshi, PTC Founders Razzaq Pardesi, and , Murad Ali Soni, signed the MoU at a ceremony.
Under the MoU, PTC will donate plants of indigenous species to NFEH to conduct its plantation campaign in the city. The NFEH will also launch a mass awareness campaign to motivate school students, corporate and industrial sectors, media, and other concerned NGOs to actively take part in the plantation drive.
NFEH President said the plantation campaign would be launched in February and continue till October 2024 to plant 100,000 plants and saplings in the city.
He said the office of Karachi’s Commissioner, Karachi’s Mayor, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, newly formed town municipal administrations, DHA, cantonments, and corporate organizations would be fully involved in the plantation drive.
He said that it would be mainly the responsibility of the KMC, towns, cantonments, DHA, and other land-owning agencies in the city to point out proper sites for planting tree saplings and plants.
He said the new campaign would fully supplement the ongoing beautification, horticultural, and plantation activities taking place in Karachi to make clean and green its open urban places, roads, and streets.
Qureshi said the new sites would be selected in consultation with the KMC, towns, and other concerned NGOs for the best utilization of available open urban spaces for increasing green cover and growing urban forests in the city.
“We will donate plants to every concerned citizen, company, and industry that approaches us with their resolve to contribute to the cause of making Karachi clean and green but all of these recipients will have to give a solemn undertaking that they will be fully responsible for watering, nurturing, and protection of these saplings till they become fully grown trees,” he said.
He added that the NFEH would work shoulder-to-shoulder with the Commissioner’s Office, KMC, towns, and cantonments to take care of the saplings planted under the upcoming green initiative.
He maintained that the upcoming clean and green Karachi campaign continued the efforts of the NFEH launched some eight years back in partnership with the commissioner’s office to conduct extensive plantation and cleanliness drives in the city.
