ISLAMABAD: Environmental and forest experts have expressed concern at the rapid deforestation which is losing 27,000 hectares per year across the country.
According to official data, the country has a total forest cover of 4.4 million hectares, and the current rate of deforestation is 27,000 hectares per year.
Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi Department of Forestry Chairman Dr Mirza Sarwat Naz Beg said timber mafias, clearing of land for development projects, burning of wood are the main reasons for deforestation across the country.
The main drivers are the country’s growing population and the associated demand for wood, as well as weak governance and land encroachments, Beg added.
A Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) researcher Dr Kashif Salik said according to Unesco’s International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme, Pakistan’s juniper forest is believed to be the world’s second largest such reserve.
Salik said it is illegal to cut down juniper, whether the land is publicly or privately owned. However, he said that comprehensive data or estimation of the amount of juniper forest being cleared each year was not available. “The problems facing forests are ecological and environmental as well as economic,” he said.
Pakistan Agricultural Research Council scientist Fakhar Abbas said juniper trees are being infected with fungus and bacteria due to inbreeding. “The trees are located in an isolated place and fast losing their genetic diversity,” he said.
It is important to strengthen the trees’ immunity to protect them from diseases and the negative effects of climate change, he added. “We are working on a plan to exchange some trees with Central Asian states to ensure cross-breeding in the forests,” he said.
Khudai Rahim Ejbani, a forest department official, said the government is concerned at the deforestation and is trying the reverse the trend. “If people did not fear the government, they would have denuded the whole forest land in six months,” he said.
Ejbani, however, acknowledged that some forest officials are also involved in cutting down trees. “We have underlined a policy to suspend forest officials who are found involved in dereliction of duty or receiving kickbacks,” he said.
The government plans to strengthen forestry laws, Ejbani added. In Pakistan, he said, forests can be saved only if the government provides jobs for local people residing in the forested areas. “The trees may be an asset for the government and international organisations, but for the locals they are (just) a source of livelihood,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2014.
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YES, we ought to have now forestation regime instead of conservation regime. We have very fertile soil, revers, streams, ponds with perennial rains, any small efforts for forestation will be naturally succeeded. mother nature will nurture the plantation. The banks of revers, canals, streams have abundant of water by the season clock. The sides of all roads and railways should have to be planted.and open places should have to be planted it will not only improve the environment also make these assets from illegal occupants.