‘Green Emergency’

The first step is devise a policy that is conducive to forest investment and sustainable forest management practices

While the New Year was celebrated with much zeal and fervour across Pakistan, K-P was witnessing a tragedy. On January 1, a heavy wildfire engulfed the forests of Mushkpuri, Birote Khurd and nearby Dunga Gali, reducing trees worth millions of rupees to ashes. Even though wildfires are rather common in the region, the forest department has consistently failed to prevent such losses from occurring.

It is hard to understand why the authorities refrain from investing in research, despite the country having already started witnessing the horrific effects of global warming. Not only does this isolated incident require serious probe for determining the root cause of such repeated occurrence, the issue of deforestation and wildlife needs to be addressed at a broader level. K-P alone has lost more than 1.2 million trees during 2018, with losses amounting to Rs27.2 million, while the annual rate of deforestation in Pakistan remains the highest in the world — between 0.2% and 0.5% per annum. Every year the country loses almost 27,000 hectares of natural forest area, with biodiversity and wildlife significantly threatened. Many have termed the situation a ‘Green Emergency’ — a crisis that has adversely impacted the rural population that relies on forests for livelihood. Furthermore, with the boom in population, raw materials from forest ecosystems become all the more scant, making it harder to balance supply with demand. Apart from being an essential resource, forests also need to be thought of as the lungs of the country as they play a vital role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, protecting upstream watersheds, and conserving biodiversity.

While afforestation may seem to be the obvious solution, the truth is that this alone will not help. The first step is to devise a policy that is conducive to forest investment and sustainable forest management practices. Then, the root causes need to be identified and systematically targeted. At the national level, sustainable and eco-friendly measures need to be sought.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2021.

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