In these times of lockdowns due to the coronavirus, unemployment is at an all time high. The lockdowns have specially impacted the daily wage laborers, who are finding it increasingly difficult to fend for themselves and their families in these trying times.
In such a scenario, the Pakistan government has come up with a unique plan to kill two birds with one stone. It has employed over 60,000 of such daily wage laborers that have been out of work to plant billions of trees across the country to deal with climate change and global warming.
The planting of trees is being done as part of the ’10 Billion Tree Tsunami Program,’ which aims to plant trees to counter the threats of global warming. This ambitious initiative was started by Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2018 to battle the effects of extreme weather that the country has been plagued with.
Work on this initiative was temporarily stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, now it has resumed after the government gave a clearance to permit the forestry department to continue with the project.
This initiative is achieving two goals – providing employment to the thousands that have lost their jobs, along with combating climate change. All the employees have been asked to wear masks and maintain the required six feet social distancing while at work.
The project has employed thrice the number of workers this year as it did in the first. And most of these jobs are being created in the rural areas, with a special focus on absorbing women workers and those that are out of work. The initiative plans to plant about 50 million saplings this year.
Pakistan has been on the list of nations impacted majorly by global warming and experts and environmentalists have recommended reforestation as a means to counter catastrophes such as floods, droughts, and heat waves.
Isn’t this a wonderful initiative by the government of this South Asian country? Do let us know your views in the comments section below.
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