This activity was undertaken to support the initiative of the Ministry of Environment, which had declared August 18 as the National Tree Plantation Day, IUCN-Pakistan undertook to plant 10,000 mangrove saplings.

The declaration of the ee Plantation Day was a part of the government’s resolve to create awareness about the meager forest cover in the country, and to motivate people to enhance the tree cover, especially as 2009 has also been declared as the National Year of Environment.

Assisted by local community members, and school students belonging to the area, IUCN staff members coordinated the activity by providing them mangrove saplings from their nursery and assisting them in planting them on a site selected by the Coastal Marine expert Tahir Qureshi.

6000 saplings were planted in the designated area by people varying in ages from 5 years to 60 years. The balance of 4000 saplings have been planted in the IUCN area of work in Jiwani along the coast of Balochistan.

For more information, please contact:
Afia Salam
Coordinator, Education, Communications and Outreach.
IUCN Pakistan
1 Bath Island Road
Clifton, Karachi 75530
+92 21 5861540 (Work)
+92 21 5835760 (Fax)
Cell : 0300 0223019
email: afia.salam@iucnp.org
www.iucnp.org


About IUCN

IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges by supporting scientific research; managing field projects all over the world; and bringing governments, NGOs, the UN, international conventions and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice.

The world's oldest and largest global environmental network, IUCN is a democratic membership union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists and experts in some 160 countries.  IUCN's work is supported by over 1,000 professional staff in 60 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. IUCN's headquarters are located in Gland, near Geneva, in Switzerland.

www.iucn.org