Controlling deforestation

The area under forests in G-B has decreased more than 50 per cent in the last 20 years

While the rapidly shrinking forest cover all over Pakistan is a cause for concern, the current situation in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) in particular merits attention. Once home to lush forests, the region is now suffering at the hands of the timber mafia. The area under forests in G-B has decreased more than 50 per cent from 640,000 hectares to merely 295,000 hectares in the last 20 years. The blind overexploitation of forests has long-term impacts, leading to flash floods, landslides and the destruction of ecosystems; it has been identified as a key contributory factor to the damage wreaked by the 2011-12 floods. Environmental agencies estimate that Pakistan has the highest annual rate of deforestation in South Asia. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) required Pakistan to have achieved six per cent forest cover by 2015. Not only is Pakistan unlikely to meet this goal, it also appears uninterested in doing so.

The blame lies at the door of the forestry department and law-enforcement agencies. Forest guards are required to adopt the standard procedure of systematically marking trees to be felled. Unfortunately, those whose duty it is to protect our forests are the ones most zealously engaged in their destruction. Forestry officials connive with the timber mafia to not only cut down trees but also to register the illegally felled trees in record books. Those who own forested land in G-B are kept silent by the payment of a nominal amount by timber contractors. The transport of lumber to downstream markets takes place with the support of law enforcement officials. A 2013 lifting of the ban on the transport of timber has served to accelerate the deforestation of G-B. Pakistan must strive to honour its MDG commitment to sustainably develop its natural resources. Unless meaningful steps are taken, Pakistan will squander an irreplaceable resource because it prioritised short-term gain over the conservation of its forests.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  16^th,  2015.

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