Pakistan Navy launches mangroves plantation campaign at coastal belt

KARACHI: Pakistan Navy (PN) has launched Mangroves Plantation Campaign 2019 with inaugural ceremony at Port Qasim, a spokesman of the navy said in a statement.

According to the spokesman, Commander Coast Vice Admiral Fayyaz Gilani was the chief guest of the inaugural ceremony.

It is the fourth drive of Pakistan Navy aimed at planting about two million mangroves at the coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan during one year.

Commander Coast Vice Admiral Fayyaz Gilani speaking as the chief guest at the ceremony, stressed that deforestation of mangroves had not only affected biodiversity of coastal areas, but also livelihoods of coastal communities.

He said with this drive Pakistan Navy was playing its role in protection of the natural environment. It was an initiative to plant additional mangroves as well as to create awareness among the masses about the significance of mangroves to support nature, he said.

Vice Admiral Fayyaz Gilani said that Pakistan Navy has planted four million mangrove plants in three years.

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mehmood Abbasi in his message on Mangroves Plantation Campaign-2019, has said the drive is an opportunity to strengthen our unique relationship with nature. Mangrove forests offer a promising habitat and breeding ground for a large variety of marine life; including fish, crab, shrimp, mollusk species, plants and other organisms.

As a national responsibility and in line with the Government’s initiative of ‘Clean and Green Pakistan’, Pakistan Navy has been undertaking mangroves plantation campaigns since the last three years. Pakistan Navy has till to date, planted over four million mangroves along the coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan.

Global efforts to promote a Greener World are weighed down by deforestation, which is causing serious imbalance in the natural environment.

Similarly, Pakistan’s forests and mangroves have also witnessed decline at a disquieting rate during the last two decades. Depleting mangroves, not only affect coastal biodiversity but also the livelihood of our coastal communities. It is therefore, imperative to forestall deforestation through well-conceived policies and integrated institutional measures to encourage their sustainable development.