Pakistan added a new chapter to the Guinness Book of World Record on Wednesday by planting a maximum number of trees within five hours at Keti Bandar, Tehsil Thatta, some 150 kilometers in the southeast of Karachi, southern Sindh Province.

The Pakistani Ministry of Environment planted 471,475 plants within the first five hours of day light tree plantation campaign, breaking the Indian record of 447,874 trees, which had beaten Mexico's record of planting 348,493 trees on June 12-13 this year.

The Guinness Book of World Record representatives Marvi Memmon and Tahir Qureshi monitored Wednesday's campaign and certified Pakistan's record while Amir Qureshi, another high official of the world body was due for further certification, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.

The campaign has been planned as part of a series of events planned by the ministry to commemorate Pakistan's National Year of Environment, also aiming at developing forest resources through international competition.

The activity, to be monitored by independent monitors and adjudicators deputed by the Guinness Book of World Records, will achieve the national objective of increasing forest and raising awareness among people besides creating a soft image of the country in the world.

The tree plantation drive is also in accordance with the government's resolve to rehabilitate mangrove forests of Sindh by all means, in partnership with the Sindh Forest Department, international and national NGOs and the private sector.

In view of global significance of mangrove forests, particularly in the context of the tsunami of 2005, the event will be held in the Mangrove areas on the coastal island of Sindh, which are presently devoid of vegetation.

Three hundred planters have been selected from the local communities, who have been trained to plant at least 400,000 plants in 24 hours during natural light, without using any machinery. This means that one planter will have to plant about 1, 500 plants from morning till evening. That is indeed a gigantic task, for which special arrangements have been made on the site.

The Sindh Forest Department has taken the lead in organizing this event arranging planting stock and carrying out plantation through its trained planters. The awareness and motivation generated as a result of the world record event shall be geared towards holding another event on Aug. 18, 2009.

The plants planted under both these events will also be counted towards the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP)'s Billion Trees Campaign. This will further help portray a soft image of the country among comity of nations.

According to estimates, millions of cubic meter wood in Pakistan are cut annually for fuel, furniture, construction and other purposes and forests in hilly areas are under extreme stress.

With increase in population and lack of alternate energy resources, the residents of remote, hilly and far flung areas are poised to cut forest wood to meet their needs.

This trend was not only depleting the existing forest cover but also making it difficult to achieve the targets. The fact also remains there that despite planting millions of saplings every year, the forest cover area is stagnant at 4.9 percent of the total land over the decades.

Reasons behind it were massive tree cutting and low survival rate of the saplings planted every year. To save the forests and ensure better survival of saplings, the Ministry of Environment is also reviewing the strategy at all tiers, also ensuring massive awareness raising and involving all stakeholders.

"The ministry would also look after the site for three years to ensure maximum survival of saplings," said an official of the ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2009)