Urban Forestry Is Best Solution To Heatwave In Karachi

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jun, 2021 ) :Founder and director of Clifton Urban Forest, Masood Lohar Tuesday said that the urban forests are the best solution to heatwave and other environmental issues in Metropolitan city.

Exclusively talking to APP, he said that Clifton Urban Forest, an initiative described as a "green lung" is situated in Pakistan's largest city of 20 million people.

Over the years, due to our own callousness, our ecosystem has been compromised, he said, adding that the urban forest would be planted on an area of acres to create a jungle and it help to tackle the issue of heatwave in the Port city.

Besides, the forest would be source of a nice natural habitat. Urban forestry hinders flow of acidic fumes and reduces the impact of heatwave in the city, he further elaborated.

Former Program Coordinator WWF, Environmentalist Nasir Ali Panhwar said that the vanished trees and vegetation have decreased evapotranspiration or the natural cooling effects of shading and evaporation of water from soil and leaves.

Growing plants has the synergistic advantage of cooling urban heat, carbon sequestration, clean air, and aesthetics, he explained, adding that evapotranspiration, alone or in combination with shading, can help reduce peak summer temperatures.

It is to be a good cooler inside the wooded haven than the periphery which is a huge unshaded tract of land in the residential colony. Highlighting deforestation issues, he added that 25% of total area in country should be under forest cover but hardly 4% of total area in Pakistan is under forest cover, he maintained.

Environmentalist Journalist, Amar Guriro told that urban forestry can tackle heat waves in metropolitan, lower temperature and reduce use of air conditioning needs. Moreover, when planted properly around buildings, trees can help save energy used for heating during the winter.

Appreciating 10 billion Tree Tsunami Program (TBTTP), Expert in Environmental issues, Dr.

Babar Hussain Shah told that urban forestry approaches are being assigned importance and made integral part of the TBTTP to counter the fallout of environment degradation and climate change on the cities and towns.

Boosting tree cover in urban areas through sustainable and community-driven forestry has been made central part of the country's largest forestation program launched in 2019 as the part of Prime Minister Imran Khan's plan for clean and Green Pakistan Program, he added.

Shah explained that the urban forestry initiatives would also lead to establishment of several green urban forest islands in cities, where indigenous fruits and non-fruits trees would be planted to counter frequenting and intensifying incidents of heat wave, dust storms, urban flooding, soil degradation due to cloudburst and air pollution.

The forest islands in urban forest can help transform cities and towns in to more sustainable, heat wave and urban flood-resilient, healthy, equitable and livable places, another expert of agriculture and economics, Dr. Mumtaz Ali Dahari said while highlighting impacts of such urban forests.

He suggested that all stakeholders including communities, students, corporate sector and other civil society organization should be involved in urban forestry, he recounted, reiterating that the country's various urban areas will continue to remain increasingly vulnerable to various problems like socio-economic, environmental and climate change.

Appreciating initiative of Urban Forest site in Lahore, he added that the Miyawaki Urban Forest site established in the city's densely populated locality in Lahore to offset the growing negative impacts of particularly air population in the surrounding areas.

Urban Forest is a world-recognized novel idea coined by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki which helps build dense, native forests particularly in urban areas to mitigate deleterious fall outs of environmental degradation, Dahari informed.