Clifton Urban Forest is an

urban forest Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of peop ...

project currently being developed near the affluent neighborhood and seaside of Clifton in

Karachi, Pakistan Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

. Planted using the Miyawaki technique. It now hosts over 800,000 tree saplings of dozens of species, including

moringa Moringa may refer to: * ''Moringa'' (genus), a genus of plants * ''Moringa oleifera ''Moringa oleifera'' is a short-lived, fast-growing, drought-resistant tree of the family Moringaceae, native to northern India and used extensively in South ...

, sukhchain,

oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the genus ...

date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet #Fruits, fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across North Africa, northern A ...

s, and wild almonds. It was founded and directed by Masood Lohar, a climate change adaptation and resilience expert, on January 8, 2021 in close coordination with the

Government of Sindh The Government of Sindh () () is the provincial government of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Its powers and structure are set out in the provisions of the 1973 Constitution, in which 30 Districts of 7 Divisions under its authority and ju ...

. The area covers around 200 acres along the seaside, with the saplings being brought in from Lohar's nursery in

Hyderabad, Pakistan Hyderabad, also known as Neroonkot, is the capital and largest city of the Hyderabad Division in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Sindh by population, second-largest city in Sindh, after Karachi, and the List of citie ...

, which was paid for with his pension from his former job at the

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

Global Environmental Finance Unit. The project's aim is to improve the climatic conditions and resilience of Karachi, and to solve the city's problems of high temperatures, runoff water, and bad air quality. To achieve this, the end goal is to plant around one million

Salvadora persica Salvadora may refer to: * Salvadora Medina Onrubia (1894-1972), Argentine poet, anarchist, feminist * ''Salvadora'' (snake), a genus of patchnose snakes in the family Colubridae * ''Salvadora'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants in the fami ...

in the area, known locally as ''peelu''. The land along the beach being planted used to be a trash dumping ground with heaps of debris, waste, litter, and more. The garbage was moved and formed mounts along the edge of the ocean, forming a barrier against the sea's

salt spray Sea spray consists of aerosol particles formed from the ocean, primarily by ejection into Earth's atmosphere through bursting bubbles at the air-sea interface Sea spray contains both organic matter and inorganic salts that form sea salt aerosol ...

Residing birds' species

Over 150 different types of aquatic and terrestrial birds can now be found in the forest. Two internationally near-threatened birds on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological sp ...

, the

black-tailed godwit The black-tailed godwit (''Limosa limosa'') is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the godwit genus, '' Limosa''. There are four subspecies, all with orange head, neck and ches ...

eurasian curlew The Eurasian curlew or common curlew (''Numenius arquata'') is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred ...

, were spotted in the urban forest lagoon in October 2022.

References

Urban forests in Pakistan Karachi 2021 establishments in Pakistan Geography of Karachi Clifton, Karachi {{Pakistan-geo-stub