They Lost Their Jobs in Corona Lockdown – Now They Make Money Planting Trees

The COVID-19 lockdown measures have left many Pakistanis without work. But the government is offering tens of thousands of them a new opportunity to earn a living, by planting billions of trees across the nation to tackle climate issues.

The 10 Billion Tree Tsunami program employs women and the unemployed daily workers to set up nurseries, serve as forest firefighters or protection guards, and plant indigenous saplings that help deal with the extreme weather associated with climate change.

“This tragic crisis provided an opportunity and we grabbed it,” says Malik Amin Aslam, climate change advisor to the prime minister. “Nurturing nature has come to the economic rescue of thousands of people.”

The five-year program, which launched in 2018, was initially paused due to the coronavirus social distancing measures, but Prime Minister Imran Khan later exempted the forestry agency from the measures to restart the campaign, say government officials, and create over 63,600 jobs. “Due to coronavirus, all the cities have shut down and there is no work,” says Punjabi construction worker Abdul Rahman, who lost his job during the lockdown, to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “All of us now have a way of earning daily wages again to feed our families.”