Plant for Pakistan (Plant4Pakistan), also known as 10 Billion Tree Tsunami, is a five-year project to plant 10 billion trees across Pakistan from 2018 to 2023. Prime Minister Imran Khan started the drive on 2 September 2018 with approximately 1.5 million trees planted on the first day. The campaign was based on the successful Billion Tree Tsunami campaign of the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, also led by Imran Khan, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2014. This different initiative is often confused with the initiative of the Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif who launched a national campaign of Green Pakistan and also allocated budget funding from the PSDP.
In 2020, the program tripled its number of workers to 63,600 after being momentarily halted following the coronavirus pandemic, aiming to enlist those left unemployed by its economic consequences. Most of the work, which pays between 500 and 800 rupees (US$3–5) a day, takes place in rural areas, with people setting up nurseries, planting saplings, and serving as forest protection guards. The plan was awarded 7.5 billion rupees ($46m) in funding. Saplings planted during the initiative included mulberry, acacia, moringa and other indigenous species.
Planting Billions of Trees
While Pakistan's economy is 135th in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, it is among the top ten countries in the world to be affected by global warming according to the annual report of Global Climate Risk Index of German Watch, which ranks Pakistan as eighth among the countries most at risk of climate change. As of November 2021, Lahore is the number one in the world in terms of air pollution. Major cities have experienced major heat waves and high levels of pollution in the 21st century, including Karachi and Islamabad.
Pakistan has a wide variety of ecosystems within its borders, including the Arabian sea, several deserts and major rivers, and more than seven thousand glaciers. Pakistan is also at the confluence of three great mountain ranges; the Hindu Kush, the Himalayas and the Karakoram. Areas such as Sindh province are at increased risk of flooding due to the melting of glaciers and the eruption of glacial lakes, while also being at risk of drought due to an increasingly warm dry season. Threats such as hurricanes also pose an increasing threat to open populations.
The PTI-led government, under its political campaign on Green Agenda, have introduced projects like Billion Tree Tsunami and Ten Billion Tree Tsunami to tackle and raise awareness about forestry and afforestation across the country in response.
International Acceptance
The Billion Tree Tsunami, or the planting of one billion trees, was started by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in 2014. One billion trees were planted on 35,000 hectares of forest and barren land.