Pakistanis plant trees to provide relief from heat in one of world's fastest-growing cities

Mulazim Hussain is proud of the trees he has planted in the Clifton district of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi.

Surrounded by neem saplings and vegetables sprouting up from scrubland, the 61-year-old recalls a time a few years ago when the area was a giant, informal rubbish tip.

"Now there is greenery and happiness," he said, speaking near a patch of trees amid a barren expanse bordered by the sea on one side and tower blocks and offices in the distance on the other.

"Children come in the evening to play, people come to walk.

"I have raised these plants like my children over the last four years," he added, taking a break from his labours during a fierce summer heatwave.

Wearing a white and brown scarf around his head and a loose, cream-coloured shirt, he collected dry grass from the ground and watered his cherished trees during a recent visit by reporters to the urban forest plantation project.

At the end of the day, he turned the hose on himself to cool off and clean up before heading home on his motorcycle.

The father-of-two is employed by an urban afforestation project in a government-owned park in Karachi's upmarket Clifton area that is run by Shahzad Qureshi, who has worked on similar projects in other Pakistani cities and overseas.

It is one of dozens of state-owned and private planting initiatives in Pakistan, where forest cover lags far behind average levels across South Asia.

Trees absorb carbon dioxide, emissions of which contribute to warming global temperatures.

Memories of Pakistan's deadly 2015 heatwave

The aim in Clifton is to counterbalance rapid urbanisation in Karachi.

It is a sprawling port city of 17 million people where breakneck expansion of roads and buildings means there is less and less space for trees and parkland.

Mr Qureshi wanted to provide shade for residents seeking escape from rising temperatures.

A heatwave in 2015 killed more than 400 people in the city in three days, and temperatures in the surrounding Sindh region reached record highs this year.

The trees can also attract local wildlife, mitigate urban flooding and provide new sources of food.

 

"The bigger the tree cover of the city, the more the cooling, with a difference of up to 10 [degrees] Celsius when you are surrounded by trees," he said, adding that the project only used native species.

"You give them a home, you give them food and let it happen. Nature is so beautiful."

Does planting 10 billion trees make a difference?

Overall forest cover in Pakistan, home to more than 220 million people, is about 5.4 per cent, according to Syed Kamran Hussain, manager for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at the World Wide Fund for Nature's national branch.

That compares with 24 per cent in neighbouring India and 14.5 per cent in Bangladesh.

The previous government announced a mass-forestation program that envisaged planting 10 billion trees between 2019 and 2023.

"Pakistan is among the top-10 most vulnerable countries affected by global warming," Syed Kamran Hussain said.

Some climate change experts question the impact of afforestation projects — the planting of trees where there were none before — in urban settings.

The choice of species is important because it affects the amount saplings may need to be watered — a major factor in Pakistan where water is generally scarce.

And whether to plant trees at all is not a simple question: The benefits are not always clear and significant investment is needed to nurture saplings into fully grown trees.

'Visual success won't make a dent'

"What is missing from urban forestry is a holistic approach to the environment," Usman Ashraf, a doctoral researcher in development studies at the University of Helsinki, said.  

"It's about visual success, the numbers, small patches here and there.

Masood Lohar — who founded the Clifton Urban Forest, which has planted trees on the beachfront not far from Mr Qureshi's project — said afforestation could help make Karachi more resilient against natural disasters, and encourage wildlife to settle.

Experts say it can also provide relief from heatwaves, with the sea breeze getting hotter as it passes through concrete structures while roadways and rooftops absorb heat.

Where to plant is a key question, with wealthier urban areas often better off in terms of tree cover.

In the absence of more trees, "we are turning the city into hell," Mr Lohar said.

In the Sakhi Hassan Graveyard in the centre of the city, small saplings grow among uneven tombstones crammed close together, while larger trees offer shade from the midday sun.

Mohammad Jahangir, 35, is a caretaker there who waters the plants for a small cash donation from relatives who seeded them.

Viewed from above, the graveyard is a sea of green that stands out against a low-rise neighbourhood.

"We don't feel the heat here in the graveyard, while the city sizzles," Mr Jahangir said.