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Forestry in NWFP - A Cry in the Wilderness
Intikhab Amir
Publishing Date: Thursday, April 24 2003
These two northern divisions of the province also boast of being home to the major chunk of the forest resources of the country. Of their collective landmass of 4,614,672 hectares, 677,230 hectares are under forest in both the divisions. This makes for 14.7 per cent of the total area of Hazara and Malakand being covered by forest - the highest ratio in the country.
The official estimates put the total area under forest in the NWFP between 14 and 17 per cent. But this is challenged by the Provincial Forest Resource Inventory (PFRI) - a study recently carried out by a German consortium. According to the PFRI, the NWFP has some 7.8 per cent of its total area under forest. The percentage comes down to 6.8 if young plantation (planted between 1985 and 1995) is not included.
In Pakistan most of the forest resources, particularly natural forests, are situated in the NWFP and these forests have been shrinking rapidly over the past 25 years. Depletion of the forest wealth has partially resulted from commercial over-exploitation and a tremendous social pressure for firewood, construction timber, grazing and income from forest products.
The situation emerges as much grimmer when the density of the forested area is taken into account. Almost 42 per cent of the forested area has tree coverage of less than 25 per cent. A relatively small area of 21 per cent has tree coverage of more than 50 per cent whereas only 18 per cent of the forested land is in a fairly good condition. This is pretty alarming specially because 75 per cent of the total forest wealth of the country - which is accessible and unprotected - is under tremendous threat of depletion.
PFRI anticipates that the forest under threat will be extinct by the year 2025 in view of the persistent deforestation as a result of illegal cutting of trees, over-grazing and increasing over-exploitation of wood for its usage as fuel and in construction works.
Another official report suggests that the NWFP is losing forest cover at a rate of one per cent annually. And this situation has arisen at a time when an officially imposed ban on the forest harvesting (cutting of trees), for commercial purposes remained in force for seven years from 1993 to December 2000.
Only the forest located above 2,000 metres survived the onslaught of deforestation. Its altitude made it difficult to access. More than 50 per cent of the fir, spruce, deodar or kail trees grow in the uneven and aged forests, which cover perpendicular terrain.
Over-exploitation of the forest reserves by the people living in those areas coupled with illegal cutting of trees on a large scale by unscrupulous elements and the silence of the forest department have threatened forests with extinction. There is urgent need to create awareness among the people about making optimum and sensible use of forests which have a bearing on human life.
People need to be told that forests provide many products and services beyond timber. They produce non-wood materials such as food, fodder, fish, oils, resins, spices and fragrance. They regulate water supplies, absorb and decompose wastes, cycle nutrients, create and maintain soils, provide pollination, pest control and habitat to flora and fauna, moderate disturbances such as floods and storms and, more importantly, regulate local and global climate.
Besides, forests also have educational, recreational, aesthetic and cultural benefits. To achieve these, seemingly difficult, objectives, communities living in forest areas need to be involved in the conservation schemes. This is possible only if the existing out-dated forest management system is revamped and an effective system instituted. Thus alone can the forest wealth be saved.
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