Engaging youth in green initiatives PM’s priority: Pakistan’s Amin

09 / 08 / 2020

By The Nation -

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has accorded top priority to engaging the country’s youth with the green initiatives launched under his Clean and Green Pakistan vision, particularly the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP), said Malik Amin Aslam, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, here yesterday.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan recognises the significant role of the country’s youth in all socioeconomic sectors, particularly the clean and green initiatives launched to achieve environmental sustainability, control environmental degradation and climate change impacts,” Malik Amin said while addressing a press conference here. He highlighted that bringing an understanding of nature into youth’s lives is particularly important in a world that is increasingly urbanised, polluted, affected by climate change disasters and disconnected from nature.

“However, tackling these challenges through nurturing a strong connection of children with nature will help strengthen youth’s connection and consciousness on the benefits of forests and encourage them to play their part in protecting and conserving natural resources they need for sustainable futures,” he said.

“And indeed, the youth’s connection once established with nature in turn will boost their engagement in sustainably managing natural resources, particularly forests,” Malik Amin explained. He also said that education and awareness among the youth is an unprecedented step towards safeguarding natural resources for future generations.

He disclosed that the Plantation Day with Tiger Force will be celebrated across the country today, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan by planting tree sapling at the Korang Park, Islamabad.

On the day, one million Tiger Force volunteers will plant 3.5 million indigenous fruit and non-fruit tree saplings across the country in collaboration with the climate change ministry’s TBTTP team and provincial forest departments, Malik Amin Aslam said.

Malik Amin Aslam also informed her that a novel Protected Area Initiative, approved last month by the Prime Minister, has been launched recently under the umbrella programme ‘Green Pakistan’, which is the present government’s historic milestone for nature conservation.

He also said that the Prime Minister Imran Khan had also approved the ‘Green Stimulus’ package in April this year as part of the government’s efforts to extend green cover in the county and to create job opportunities for the youth, under which so far over 86,000 green jobs have been created for daily wagers rendered unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.