Tag Archives: Mitigation

Civil society joins hands to plant 100,000 trees on Earth Day

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LAHORE: Schools, hospitals, media conglomerates and civil society across Pakistan came together to plant an estimated 100,000 trees in 38 cities of the country to celebrate the 43rd international Earth Day.

The massive tree plantation drive had been initiated by World wide Fund for Nature – Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) in partnership with PharmEvo.

Pakistan joined 193 countries and more than a billion people across the globe that celebrate this event every year to preserve the environment and create awareness about the catastrophic environmental degradation that threatens our planet.

The campaign was launched at the beginning of the month under the title “Save the Planet in a ‘Nise’ way”.

The official ambassadors of Earth Day included leading actor Adnan Siddiqui; catwalk queen: Nadia Hussain; fashion designer and actor: Aijaz Aslam; television icon: Maya Khan and actor and singer Mehwish Hayat.

Driven by enthusiasm and the spirit to save the country’s green cover, businesses, schools, universities, hospitals and offices took part in the plantation drive across Gujranwala, Sialkot, Raimyar Khan, Bhawalpur, Multan, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Karachi and Lahore to name a few.

WWF-Pakistan’s project ‘Improving Sub-watershed Management and Environmental Awareness in and around Ayubia National Park” funded by Coca Cola Foundation donated 2,000 Chir Pine tube plants for plantation on Earth Day.

Universal Agro Chemicals has donated 250 Neem saplings for the drive. In Lahore, hundreds of students, their parents, teachers, guests and academicians gathered at BSS Canal Side Campus, BSS Garden Town, BSS Johar Town, The City School Ravi, LGS Paragon and Forman Christian College to plant their share of tree saplings in different ceremonies throughout the day. The City School network planted over 5,000 trees provided by WWF-Pakistan.

Speaking at the occasion, the Director General and CEO of WWF-Pakistan, Mr Ali Hassan Habib, said, “a hundred thousand trees is merely the beginning of a bigger drive to plant trees.

Pakistan is one of the most threatened countries in the South Asian regions when it comes to depleting forest cover, which is essential for livelihoods, human and animal habitat, for sourcing many plants and herbs for medicinal purposes and for providing us a balanced and healthy environment to live in. The Earth Day tree plantation drive is our way of creating awareness about this critical issue.”

Hospitals and medical professionals emerged as some of the most enthusiastic participants of the Earth Day tree plantation drive, where the senior staff of Services Hospital echoed the sentiments of the medical fraternity, stating that trees are essential for human health and society and authorities must come together to pledge their support for afforestation and plantation drives.

Earlier, the Associate Vice President of Earth Day Network, John Maleri, had invited WWF-Pakistan and PharmEvo to be the official partners in Pakistan for this event.

Published on April 22, 2013 in Lahore Times.
http://www.lhrtimes.com/2013/04/22/civil-society-joins-hands-to-plant-100000-trees-on-earth-day/

Developing nations put climate change at heart of plans

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DHAKA/ISLAMABAD: Representatives from governments in Africa and Asia have formed a network to support their efforts to factor climate change into their development plans.

The group developed its plans at the 7th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change, which ended today in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The Government Group Network on Climate Change Mainstreaming and Development includes members from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, The Gambia and Zanzibar – and will expand to include other countries.

The network exists to enable policymakers in countries at risk from climate change to share information and collaborate in ways that can strengthen their policies and plans by ensuring they consider how climate change could affect development.

The network has developed a framework for assessing and planning how to integrate climate into the business of national and sub-national planning professionals. The building blocks of the framework are political will, information and awareness, and resources for programmes and projects.

The CBA7 conference – organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Bangladesh Centre for Advance Studies (BCAS) — brought together over 250 international practitioners, scientists, government and non-government policy and decision makers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened the conference with a strong call for rich countries to help poorer ones to adapt, but also pointed out that developing nations were already leading the way in adaptation.

“This year’s event was especially important in bringing on board significant participation from governments, who now join the civil society based groups that have been mostly involved so far,” says Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in IIED’s climate change group. “This seventh annual meeting has demonstrated how far and fast the community of practice has grown over just a few short years.”

Conference delegates – and online participants who followed the conference over the internet –learnt about ways that people around the world are adapting to climate change in both rural and urban settings, and how governments can embed adaptation in all policy arenas.

“The conference was very useful both in terms of the things I learned that could be replicated at country level and through the interactive networking opportunities it created,” says Lamin Jobe from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in The Gambia. “It has inspired me to advocate for mainstreaming monitoring and evaluation into our climate change planning and implementation processes.”

“Bangladesh has reasserted itself as the adaptation capital of the world,” says Atiq Rahman, director of BCAS. “The issues of climate, development and vulnerability of the poor must be central to future decision making process. There must be assured, adequate and sustainable financial resources for the poorest of the world impacted by climate change induced extreme events.”

Next year’s conference will take place in Nepal and its theme will be ‘financing adaptation’.

Beating wild weather in Sri Lanka – IRIN News

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 Millions affected, tens of thousands displaced, damages in billions of dollars – Sri Lanka is  facing the brunt of changing climate cycles. Extreme weather events are becoming ordinary, but still authorities are not geared to tackle them and make sure the affected are not left helpless. There is always the chance that the victims could be in for   double jeopardy, as 2012 showed.  http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98008/Beating-wild-weather-in-Sri-Lanka