ISLAMABAD: A three-day National Workshop on Ten Billion Trees Tsunami Programme (TBTTP) was inaugurated here aimed to build capacities of the stakeholders and Third Party Monitoring Consortium in partnership with KfW MIS experts.
The workshop was jointly organized by the Ministry of Climate Change Government of Pakistan, KfW, and Third Party Monitoring Consortium: IUCN Pakistan, FAO Pakistan and WWF-Pakistan, said a news release.
The consortium has developed a logical framework, monitoring tools, methodologies and conducted preliminary assessment of the selected sites all over the country.
In his key note address Secretary Ministry of Climate Change Captain (R) Sikander Qayyum said that the TBTTP was a key initiative of Ministry of Climate Change and a flagship programme upscaled on the basis of successful implementation of Billion tree Afforestation Project in KP. “Afforestation at larger scale has been targeted all over the four provinces of Pakistan, AJK and GB, ” he added.
National Project Manager, Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP) Hasan Sukhera provided overview of the TBTTP Programme.
In his remarks, he said that technology was playing a key role in reporting and monitoring the project progress and would also remain useful for decision makers.
In his welcome remarks, Country Representative IUCN Pakistan Mahmood Akhtar Cheema said the consortium comprising of FAO, WWF and IUCN would independently monitor the programme activities using the methodologies and tools developed during pilot monitoring.
The findings of pilot monitoring were given due weightage by the MoCC and the report of pilot monitoring was shared with SAPM Malik Amin Aslam and Prime Minister Imran Khan, he added.
Cheema thanked the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for its financial support in undertaking the full fledge monitoring process. He also appreciated the role of KfW during the planning phase and finalization of Log-frame for the independent third party monitoring of the TBTTP.
In her remarks, a representative of the Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany, Ms. Antonia Peters, First Secretary, Development Cooperation said that Germany would be fully engaged in providing technical and financial support for the implementation of various environmental and climate change-related initiatives launched under the clean and green Pakistan initiative.
The next two days of workshop will comprise of technical sessions on monitoring and evaluation.
The TBTTP was the largest afforestation programme in the country which comprised of tree plantations/ assisted natural regeneration and also supported implementation of targets 15.1, 15.2, 15.5 and 15.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
IUCN would facilitate the Ministry of Climate Change for overall coordination, development of Logical Framework and in undertaking the Biodiversity Assessment, whereas FAO would extend support for regular field data collection and periodic forest cover change assessment through remote sensing and provide technical support in the integrated watershed management and forest landscape restoration. The WWF Pakistan would be responsible for the field sampling and monitoring.
The Consortium partners were represented by Country Representative IUCN Pakistan Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, NRM Advisor, FAO Pakistan, Dr Faiz-ul-Bari, Senior Director WWF, Rab Nawaz.
The inaugural session of the national workshop was attended by representatives of international development partners and government agencies.
The project was designed to foster and strengthen national and provincial climate change adaptation through field intensive activities and in meeting Pakistan’s global environmental commitments.