Islamabad: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have signed a wide-ranging agreement to collaborate on green initiatives and learn from each other’s experiences. It is the first-of-its-kind green partnership between the two countries.
The two sides have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate in nine environmental areas which include both green areas such as nature protection, biodiversity, forestation and also brown areas which include pollution control and management of toxic waste.”
The wide-ranging document has been signed for “deeper and more sustainable cooperation for green development in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia,” Pakistani PM’s advisor on climate change, Malik Amin Aslam, told Gulf News.
New green chapter
The agreement was signed by Malik Amin Aslam and Saudi environment minister Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadley in Riyadh. The document is “a success of green diplomacy” between the two countries whose leaders are pursuing green growth, Aslam said. The advisor hoped this cooperation would open a “new green chapter” in the Pakistan-Saudi relationship.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the Saudi Green Initiative launched last year and had offered his country’s support to the kingdom for the massive tree-planting project. Khan later attended the Middle East Green Initiative Summit held in October 2021 in Riyadh at the invitation of the Saudi crown prince.
Cooperation phases
In the first phase of the cooperation, experts from both sides would hold consultations and share relevant data and information. Saudi minister has invited Pakistani experts who worked on the billion-tree tsunami project to immediately visit the kingdom and finalize their plantation plan, the prime minister’s aide shared. In the next phase of cooperation, plants grown in Pakistan would also be shipped to Saudi Arabia. One of such plants is the Moringa tree which is known as the miracle tree because of its high nutrition value. In the follow-up phase, Pakistan would also export its workforce to the kingdom.
Green initiatives
Pakistan and Saudi officials also discussed the Miyawaki forest technique successfully implemented in Pakistan which uses little water and suits the Saudi environment. Pakistan launched the world’s biggest Miyawaki urban forest in Lahore in August last year. Under this technique, the miniature forests can grow 10 times faster, become 30 times denser and 100 times more biodiverse than those planted by conventional method plantation techniques.
Last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a massive green initiative to turn the Gulf region green. Saudi Arabia will plant 10 billion trees under the Saudi Green Initiative and will work with regional countries to plant 50 billion trees across the Middle East.
Pakistan is on its way to planting 10 billion trees across the country and restoring more than a million hectares of forest under PM Imran Khan’s Green Pakistan programme. The national forestation programme was launched after Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province successfully planted 1 billion trees. The initiative was widely welcomed by world leaders and environmentalists.
