US Partners 10BTT, Keen To Share Expertise In National Park Conservation: Amin Aslam

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2019 ) :Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam Thursday said the United States had partnered in "Ten billion Tree Tsunami" project and expressed interest sharing expertise in National Park conservation.

He told APP that the US Ambassador Paul W. Jones had done plantation under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project at the US Embassy to contribute their share in the massive environment conservation drive.

He said the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami programme was not only a plantation drive rather an eco-system restoration endeavour that had special component of national park conservation and development of wildlife sanctuaries.

"The US has great experience of national park conservation and Pakistan will definitely like to benefit from their best practices and success stories to have effective and all inclusive national park and wildlife conservation under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project," he added.

To a question, he said there were many countries interested in venturing into the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project and also wanted to learn from our successful Billion Tree Afforestation Programme (BTAP) that had become Pakistan's identity around the world.

"Turkey is inspired by BTAP and wants to learn for successful ecological conservation techniques. Similarly, China, Germany and Japan are also interested to partner in the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Project for knowing the experienced strategies to undertake huge ecological preservation targets. Japan has also issued funding to establish the Eco-system Restoration Fund," he added.

He said Pakistan would present the Eco-system Restoration Fund at the 25th conference of parties (COP-25) to be held in Spain as a unique initiative for the global partners to develop a joint funding facility to protect the environment under 10 Billion Tree Tsunami programme.

Earlier, Malik Amin Aslam and Ambassador Paul W. Jones planted a Moringa tree near the U.S. Embassy's Chancery building where the ambassador informed that it had planted around 513 new trees and saved 520 old trees during the construction of the building.

To a question, the adviser refuted the establishment of model villages in the Margalla Hills National Park and said new construction would never be allowed rather the already established villages would be overhauled to attract tourism in the national park.

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