Thar Foundation collaborates with Urban Forestry under Thar Million Tree Program

Thar Foundation collaborates with Urban Forestry under Thar Million Tree Program 

Karachi, August 22:  In a major push for increasing green cover in Karachi and mitigate the effects of climate change, Thar Foundation – the CSR front for Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) & Engro Powergen Thar Limited (EPTL) – has announced a collaboration with the Urban Forestry for plantation of over 10,000 saplings across the metropolis.  

In this connection, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Thar Foundation, and Urban Forestry whereby, together with SECMC, Thar Foundation will provide 10,000 saplings to Urban Forestry to increase greening factor in Karachi and create green spaces in the city. This collaboration has been done under the larger Thar Million Tree Program initiative of Thar Foundation which plans to plant 01 million trees in Thar by end of 2019. With the current agreement, the total count of trees stands over 700,000. 

The agreement was signed by Syed Murtaza Azhar Rizvi, Director Site Operations of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company and Shahzad Qureshi, Convener, Urban Forestry amongst presence of officials from both sides.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Murtaza Azhar Rizvi, Director Site Operations, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company said: “Thar Foundation has voluntarily adopted the Sustainable Development Goals framework of the United Nations to ensure that we arrest climate change and initiate measures that will help in deploying a green and healthy environment. Our collaboration with Urban Forestry is a natural extension of our resolve to further environmental stewardship and create green, public spaces in Karachi.” 

He further added that this MoU signed for launching tree plantation activities in Karachi is part of our Thar Million Tree Program, which is the Company’s flagship environmental stewardship program targeted at planting 01 million trees by end of 2019. The MoU with Urban Forestry will aim to bring the betterment of community and environment across Karachi by carrying out massive plantation in one of the largest metropolises of the world. 

Earlier SECMC established Sindh's largest private sector nursery spread over 80 acres of land and having a capacity to nurture 0.5 million saplings at a time. The nursery has contributed saplings of different local species like Sarhain, Moringa, Bairi, Babur, Neem and Kandi. The program is aimed at contributing towards carbon footprint reduction, combating desertification and promoting a green and healthy environment in Tharparkar.