World Day to Combat Desertification: ‘Pakistan is close to becoming a desert’

Many species of trees are already extinct while others are endangered.

KARACHI:

Eighty per cent — 68 million hectares — of Pakistan’s land is arid. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said at a press conference at their country office on Thursday. They collaborated with Baanhn Beli and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), for environment and CSR to come up with a plan on World Day to Combat Desertification (today).

IUCN’s Lasbella coordinator Nadeem Mirbhar defined ‘desertification’ for the gathering. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) defines it as ‘land degradation in dry lands’ instead of the ‘creation of deserts’.

“One of every three people are affected by land degradation in some way,” he said. “Nearly two billion hectares of land have been seriously degraded - some irreversibly while over 110 countries have been potentially threatened by desertification. Africa, Asia and Latin America, where almost 90% of the dry-land inhabitants live, are the worst.”

Desertification is put down to population pressure, intensification of agriculture, water-logging and salinity. Water-logging is when the land absorbs too much water and cannot absorb air. Salinity is when the land literally gets too salty for vegetation. Both are caused by poor irrigation and drainage, deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion and poverty.

Dr Kella Lekhraj, the project coordinator for a government-sponsored Sustainable Land Management Project, cited the ‘Guggal tree’ in the Tharparkar region of Sindh as an example. As the plant is cut down and sold, it is close to extinction. Other trees, such as the Phog, Timber Tree, Kandi (prosopis) and Loharo (Tecoma), are already extinct.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2011.