Climate change is hitting Pakistan’s northern mountainous region hard, but the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) is leading afforestation efforts to restore ecosystems and safeguard traditional livelihoods against growing environmental threats. As part of its climate resilience initiatives, AKRSP has helped plant more than 51 million trees across Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. These trees play a crucial role in restoring degraded land, preventing social erosion, and increasing the resilience of communities to environmental shocks. “The glaciers are receding at an unprecedented rate, which is causing flash floods in this area. The floods destroy residential and agricultural lands of the communities. The rising water scarcity issue is also forcing people to move to cities. The plantations prevent land erosion,” says Sohail Rizwan, Manager Climate Resilience, AKRSP.