Monitoring of Implementation of Urban and Peri - Urban Forest Policy

 Writ petition 192069 of 2018 was Sub-Judice in the Lahore High Court under the title Shiekh Asim Farooq vs Federation of Pakistan. In the said petition, the petitioner pleaded that despite existence of variance Forest and Allied Policies at Provincial and National Level, the area under tree cover in Pakistan in general and Punjab in Particular has not increased significantly. The Forest Department as one of the respondents/ Stakeholder apprised the court that under rules of Business the Department only operates on the 3 % of the total Forest area in Punjab, while there is No formal policy to address the remaining 90% area of Punjab through other relevant Departments. On the direction of the Court the Punjab Urban and Peri-Urban Forest Policy was prepared and has been processed for approval by the Competent Forum. It was also directed by the court that there should be a formal mechanism for monitoring the implementation of said policy. In this regard, different Departments were also included as implementing agencies with defined scope of afforestation work. These Departments includes Agriculture, School Education, Irrigation, Local Government, Environment, HUD & PHE cooperatives and all Development Authorities including PHAs. Under the policy, all the above departments will provide the detail of tree planting activities in sixteen districts of Punjab to Punjab Forest Department through the office of the Chief Conservator of Forests, PM&E Lahore. The GIS Lab shall conduct the monitoring of activities under the mechanism provided in PC-I and will develop the progress report in addition to maintenance of Dashboard and through employment of android application.

G.Period: 36 Months (2019 - 20 to 2021 - 22)