Pillage of forests and green spaces

Pakistan's natural resources are on sale. Mountains rich with minerals and forests are under assault by the elites. Greed is fast devouring trees, while ecology and local communities are fast falling victim to reckless and inconsiderate excavations. Strangely, even terrorist groups do not obstruct this exploitation. On the contrary, they respect the curfew whenever imposed. Trucks carrying timber and minerals pass through areas under curfew fearlessly, without encountering any roadblocks.

Although this week's Pakistan Minerals Forum showcased the country's mineral wealth, which is currently being exploited in Balochistan and certain districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the real challenge lies in the socio-economic and ecological outcomes of the exploitation.

Minerals remain useless until excavated, processed and put to use - also for the benefit of local communities. Yet, if the experience of most African and South American countries were any indicator, such activities would leave behind big craters, ecological disasters and impoverished local communities. Liberia, for instance, produces diamonds but remains one of the poorest countries. The excavating companies, on the contrary, have amassed billions of dollars.

Pakistan's forests too represent a similar sad story. Trees are being chopped down at an alarming speed, while the natives watch helplessly as their ecological cover is being chipped away. Recent videos of hundreds, possibly thousands, of logs from Allai or Battagram district in the northern Hazara Division also document the extremely irresponsible removal of trees from the already shrinking forests. In Galiyat, or for that matter in the Murree region, lots of reserved forest areas have fallen to high-rise buildings along and off the road - literal encroachment into forest areas. Haripur and other districts of Hazara have suffered the same fate with the active collaboration of forest officials. In Kohistan, whole stretches of forest have vanished, all in collusion between the timber merchants and forest officials - from the forest guard to the chief. Makhnial, near Islamabad's Margalla Hills, represents another blot on the K-P Forest Department. Several commercial and residential schemes have been built on Guzara forests, which sit almost at the confluence of K-P and Islamabad.

Through dubious demarcation, huge areas of K-P's reserved forests have been included in the Murree region. Original records have either disappeared or have been systematically tampered with to justify the demarcation. Centuries-old documents and records have been cleverly manipulated to appropriate these lands and the trees there. In fact, as some people familiar with the practice point out, several officials have become part of such mafias that hunt for trees in the reserved forest regions. All this happens despite concerns raised by individuals and watchdogs, protests by natives, and in the presence of multiple laws and an army of Forest Department officials. The Forest Department as a whole also often bends to political pressure to make way for the exploitation of natural forest resources, with the primary motive of clearing forest land for housing societies - a very profitable business indeed. While politicians and officials publicly express commitment to clean air, forest preservation and the protection of wildlife, their actions on the ground betray this rhetoric.

But can you stop the mauling of natural resources when the guardians themselves become part of the mafias that thrive off the exploitation of forest trees and minerals?

Some call for new laws or the imposition of bans on tree-felling. But this hardly helps. Consider the following. Then prime minister Nawaz Sharif imposed a ban in 1992, but more than three decades later, the pillage of forests continues unabated. We don't need more laws or fresh bans but scientific management and monitoring through panels of integrity. Forest law provides for ample punishments for tree-cutters, but the culprits go home after paying penalties for violations. Some concerned activists call for strong institutions that can strictly enforce existing laws. They naively yearn for strong institutions that are able to handle natural resources with care and are empowered to deal with violators of the law. Yet a bitter irony stands out: while most individuals advocate strong institutions, many of them lunge at any opportunity offered by those who are responsible for running down institutions. Strong institutions require countless strong individuals with integrity. Individuals driven by care for personal interests and cautious about their social relations can hardly help in strengthening institutions.

Additionally, I would like to submit the following recommendations for consideration and possible adoption during meetings with decision-makers in KP: 1) Creation of an independent panel comprising experts in forestry, wildlife, biodiversity, livelihoods, media and civil society in KP to monitor environmental damage, make policy recommendations and assess gaps between policy and actions by all stakeholders. Experts from this panel can make meaningful contributions to this effort. 2) A complete province-wide ban and moratorium on all forms of deforestation and activities that threaten wildlife and biodiversity. 3) An urgent review of the Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's forest "scientific management" policy (which is, in effect, a policy of destruction), along with geospatial mapping of existing forests and measures for their protection. Demotion, reprimands and appropriate punishment for forest officials found collaborating with or facilitating timber and land mafias. 4) Notification and creation of new nature reserves and protected areas in the province to protect its unique biodiversity. 5) Annual publication of a "State of Forests, Biodiversity and Nature Reserves in K-P" report, supported by validated data and geospatial imagery, which can serve as a measurable benchmark for all future development activities.

As DFO Galiyat, I tried not to compound any cases but to try them in court, send the culprits to jail for a few months, confiscate the timber and impound the vehicles used. These actions were then extensively publicised in the news, with quite well-to-do elders of the area shown in chains and their arrests headlined in newspapers. This made a big difference, and for quite some time, there was a significant pause in tree-cutting.

The credit goes to the then Commissioner of Hazara, Muhammad Ali Changezi, who was a great supporter of mine. So much so that he would send his spies to the magistrates' courts to check how they were deciding the cases. The magistrates became aware of this and were compelled to decide the cases in favour of the Forest Department.

But after the Commissioner left Hazara, the magistrates started dragging their feet on forest cases, which is why the department again reverted to compounding the cases, as this was preferable to the decisions being taken by the courts.

Strangely enough, one of the civil judges in Abbottabad decided 1,600 forest cases in a single day, without imposing any penalties on the smugglers, and then kept trying to get his name into the Guinness Book of World Records. This tells the whole story of how our government machinery treats forest cases.

Mobat Khan of Mirpur, Abbottabad, a well-known wealthy man, was sent to jail. Similarly, Shamroz Khan of Abbottabad was sent to Dera Ismail Khan jail, and the same was true of almost all the big shots. This brought a good name to the Forest Department and badly exposed these so-called elders in the news.

The thing is that I can honestly claim that my blood lies in the forests of Thandiani, where I fought the timber barons, and I am so proud of it. But now, some dons like Nazar Shah have totally reversed the structure of the forest service. They are all there to earn, not to save the green gold. While Yusuf is being awarded medals, AG Khan is being brutally ignored.