BILLION TREE TSUNAMI

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Imran Khan, Khyber Pakthunkhwa Government

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is located in the northwestern region of Pakistan, alongside the border of Afghanistan. The region's climate varies significantly, with a mountainous northern region that collects significant snowfall, and an arid southern zone. The Billion Tree Tsunami planted 350,000 hectares with one billion trees, including saplings and protected naturally regenerated trees across the province. The project was administered by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and was a Bonn Challenge project, a conservation challenge led by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The project was initiated to address the low rate of forest cover across Pakistan, where forests represent less than 3% of its land area. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the largest percent of remaining forest cover, and the campaign set out explicitly to reforest areas including river banks and mountainous areas near glaciers where the effects of climate change are expected to be the most severe. Additionally, tree planting on farms and in areas with high biodiversity was prioritized. The project established 13,000 private tree nurseries across the province in each of its districts, and invested in local and imported tree varieties, especially fast growing species like eucalyptus trees. This network of nurseries produced nearly 25,000 saplings each, and the government guaranteed the purchase of the trees and offered cash advances. The project is now being monitored for tree survival, as well as ecosystem benefits, and its success has spurred the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami, a tree planting project at the level of the federal government in Pakistan.

2014 - 2017
8650000 acreS
3310 feet above sea level

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