"On her first foray into tree planting, Laiba Atika forgot a key item — a shovel, which her mom later fetched.

But the 17-year-old is clear about why she is leading volunteers in the northern Pakistani city of Mardan to plant dozens of pine trees in a scrubby park.

'It's our duty as citizens,' she says in formal English, 'to implement actions that can make planet a better place to live in.'

Atika's tree-planting drive is being replicated all over Pakistan, where the government aims to plant 10 billion trees over five years with the help of local communities. The reforestation initiative is central to a wide-ranging plan the Pakistani government recently adopted to change practices and cut emissions that drive climate change."

Diaa Hadid and Abdul Sattar report for NPR September 29, 2020. [2]