By Dr. Muhammad Fahim Khan Jadoon
The pursuit of scalable and sustainable solutions has become a pressing national issue in the process of addressing the growing environmental degradation, climate-induced catastrophes, and deteriorating ecosystem health in Pakistan. The Ethiopian Green Legacy Initiative can be considered one of the global models due to its magnitude, comprehensive character, and effectiveness in environmental change. The project, which was introduced seven years ago, is thus far credited as one of the biggest afforestation and reforestation program in the world and serves as a good source of inspiration for the Pakistani climate change adaptation and mitigation policies.
The achievement in Ethiopia is based on the fact that the country shares a national culture of environmental consciousness, and green behavior has been placed in the mainstream of people. As close to 25 million individuals mobilize every year and over 48 billion trees and seedlings are planted, the program proves that reforestation can be more than a conservation effort; it can be a movement of the entire society. In the case of Pakistan, which is a nation where forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, with urban sprawl and pollution levels on the rise, and water scarcity on the rise, this model is very applicable and replicable.
Mass participation is one of the main characteristics of the Ethiopian approach; it is the politics of mobilization in climate change. Beyond being turned into a national movement, tree-planting has reached the citizens, students, private commercial interests, diaspora groups, and international co-operators. Such large-scale mobilization has led to a culture in which people treat environmental stewardship as a national identity.
This has already been experienced in glimpses in Pakistan in the previous plantation campaigns; however, participation has been unequal, and it has mostly been in the urban regions. To embrace the model of Ethiopia, it would be necessary to rebrand reforestation as a civic duty that has to be integrated into the local government, schools, and community-based organizations. Decentralized strategy- mobilization of union councils, tehsil administrations, and school districts- would be useful in ensuring that Pakistan can have a large-scale effect at low cost.
The Ethiopian program is not merely about the number of trees, but the afforestation program is related to the food security and economic viability of the country. The plantations in Ethiopia are fruit trees, watershed restoration, as well as soil rehabilitation activities that directly sustain agriculture and lifestyles. This connection is made so that the reforestation process does not represent a high-end option, but rather an investment into the long-term well-being of humanity.
In the case of Pakistan, where agriculture is becoming more exposed to floods, droughts, and changing monsoon patterns, the combination of reforestation and food security may be revolutionary. The rural communities could be made more resilient through agroforestry, watershed restoration, and climate-smart agriculture with the assistance of the tree plantation. In addition, the economic potential (enhanced tourism, local employment, and enhanced soil productivity) matches well with the development requirements of Pakistan.
The other aspect of the Ethiopian experience is the implementation of green technologies in order to sustain environmental productivity. Some of them are drone-based forest management monitoring, solar-powered interventions, and green e-commerce that connects agricultural production with the modern market.
Pakistan, having a developing technological market and a young population, can adjust to such models. Start-ups, university incubators, and vocational centers can incorporate the so-called green entrepreneurship starter kits that promote innovation in the areas of reforestation, sustainable agriculture, solar projects, and electric mobility. Major governance issues can also be resolved using technology to enhance monitoring, reduce corruption, and provide transparency in projects based on plantations.
Pakistan is exposed to numerous environmental pressures, which include loss of biodiversity, depletion of resources, as well as unpredictable weather conditions, heatwaves, and floods cannot be solved without the good coordination of institutions. The centralized policy commitment and long-term planning assist in driving the green movement in Ethiopia since there is coherence between the government agencies and the international partners.
The implementation gaps, overlapping of institutions, and reactive actions instead of preventive actions are the common aspects of environmental governance in Pakistan. Pakistan can enhance policy congruency at the federal, provincial, and district levels by analyzing the integrated model of Ethiopia. An open and aligned system of climate governance, which is backed up by climate finance, evidence-based planning, and timely monitoring, can go a long way in improving the outcomes.
The importance of solutions based on nature, coupled with measurement and verification, is one of the most compelling Ethiopian lessons. Impact assessment, biodiversity surveillance, and community-based management support reforestation. This guarantees long-term ecological benefit as opposed to token plantation motives.
In the case of Pakistan, it is important to have similar monitoring mechanisms. Well-managed forests, both reserve and protected, have recorded large gains in forest cover and local livelihood. Having the correct information, communities will be able to monitor the progress, recognize changes in the ecology, and be involved in long-term stewardship.
The green legacy in Ethiopia shows that being climate responsible is not the task of forests, but also of universities, government departments, hospitals, and local institutions. Accountability is shown through internal measures on energy usage, waste production, and full-fledged emissions, and a culture of environmental ethics is established.
This can be emulated in the universities and other public organizations in Pakistan via climate responsibility frameworks, which include measurement and reporting schemes, campus sustainability programs, and green practices of operation. When these practices become institutional, they can spread to society, thus influencing the behavior of the environment on a large scale.
The concept of collective responsibility that includes citizens, governments, and nations, perhaps, is the largest lesson that Pakistan can learn from the Ethiopian green legacy. With the persistence of climate change that is slowly redesigning the ecosystem and posing a threat to livelihoods, no nation can go it alone. Transnational green diplomacy, such as the cooperation between the institutions in Ethiopia and Pakistan, will contribute to increasing global integrity and establishing additional potential points of knowledge sharing.
The green legacy in Ethiopia is not merely a green campaign but rather a dream of solidarity, sustainability, and environmental protection. In the case of Pakistan, the consideration and adaptation of this model can be a turning point, one that would be able to combine ecological restoration with socio-economic growth, technological development, and the cooperation of global climate policies.
