Rs122 billion Green Pakistan Project faces fresh audit over plantation figures

The Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change has sought a separate audit of timber cutting and forest loss over the last 15 years

Islamabad: The Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change has sought a separate audit of timber cutting and forest loss over the last 15 years and backed a special audit to verify tree plantation figures under the Upscaling Green Pakistan Project as questions were raised over whether official numbers match the situation on the ground.

The committee, chaired by Senator Sherry Rehman, was told that the project has a total cost of Rs122.146 billion, of which Rs34.958 billion has been spent so far. During 2025-26, Rs2.160 billion out of a Rs2.250 billion allocation was released and officials said 99.8 percent of the released amount was used.

The committee questioned how the tree plantation and watershed work was being checked. Officials said a special audit had already been conducted up to 2023, while regular audits had also been carried out except for the last financial year.

Minister for Energy Musadik Malik told the committee that the Auditor General of Pakistan had approved a special audit to cross check project allocations, spending and the numbers being reported for plantation activities. He said the purpose was to improve the accuracy and verification of the figures.

The committee also questioned whether the reported plantation figures reflected the actual condition of forests. Senator Sherry Rehman referred to the browning of forest areas and said places such as Chitral could be compared with their condition in the past. She questioned why forest cover appeared to be declining despite large plantation programmes.

The chairperson also raised concerns about provincial laws related to tree cutting and alleged illegal timber activity. She asked whether such laws and their enforcement were contributing to the loss of forests, particularly in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Senator Rehman separately raised concerns over what she described as timber mafia activity and asked that timber movement and forest cutting be examined as part of a separate audit. She said the committee wanted the review to cover about 15 years so that the matter could be examined without focusing on a particular government or political period.

Officials said illegal timber movement could also involve activity across the border and enforcement agencies, customs and border security forces would need to be involved. The committee said the movement of timber through rivers, roads and storage areas should also be examined.

The committee was also briefed on plantation progress under the project from 2019 to 2026. Officials said the project has forestry and wildlife components and reported that plantation work across different forest types had reached 68 percent of the set target. Roadside plantation was reported at 52 percent, while farm and urban forestry was reported at 73.8 percent.

Officials explained that the plantation figures are measured against targets approved at the start of the project. They also said plantation sites are being monitored by provincial authorities, the project and a third party consortium involving FAO, UNDP and WWF with another partner.

The project has also started comparing satellite images from 2019 and 2025 to measure changes in green cover at plantation sites. Officials said analysis of three provinces showed an average increase of about 15 percent in green cover in the areas examined.

Officials told the committee that increasing the national forest cover by one percent would require about 49,000 hectares of additional land. Much of the plantation work under the project is being carried out on degraded land with the aim of restoring it.

The committee stressed that reported figures should be checked against what is actually happening on the ground and called for the audit process to identify any gap between reported achievements and the condition of forests. The separate timber audit will be developed in consultation with the relevant authorities and presented to the committee.