Since January 2021, philanthropist-led Clifton Urban Forest has planted 700,000+ native saplings using the dense Miyawaki method on a reclaimed 200-acre former dump site in Karachi, drawing 140+ bird species including two near-threatened waders.
200 acres
Site area
700,000+ trees
Trees planted to date
140+ species
Bird species recorded
up to 3 million trees
Target trees on site
Details
Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Clifton Urban Forest (founder Masood Lohar), with Government of Sindh
After Karachi's 2015 heatwave killed more than 2,000 people, former UNDP climate-finance officer Masood Lohar began converting a 200-acre former trash-dumping ground on the Clifton seashore into a dense native forest, on land offered by the Pakistan Navy and coordinated with the Government of Sindh.
Activities
Using the Japanese Miyawaki method — planting native species densely to accelerate canopy closure — the project prepared roughly one million Salvadora persica (peelu) saplings alongside moringa, sukhchain, oleander, date palm and wild almond, targeting up to three million trees on the site.
Results
Over 700,000 trees have been planted to date. Bird surveys have recorded more than 140 species using the site, including two internationally near-threatened waders first documented in October 2022. The project won a Google Geo for Good 2023 Impact Award.
Conclusions
Because funding and leadership remain concentrated in one founder-led organisation rather than an institutionalised city programme, independent verification of survival rates and long-term maintenance funding is limited compared with government-run schemes.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
Clifton Urban Forest (founder Masood Lohar), Government of Sindh (coordination)
Conditions for success
Dense Miyawaki planting method accelerating canopy closure on degraded land
Land provided by the Pakistan Navy
Common failure modes
Funding and leadership concentrated in one founder-led organisation rather than an institutionalised city programme
No independent verification of tree survival rates or long-term maintenance funding
Do you run this practice?
Claim it —
verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
