Saving Kohistan's Forests

Rina Saeed Khan

Publishing Date: Thursday, June 7 2007

An NGO has worked hard to raise awareness of- the value of forests in Kohistan. The 30,000 inhabitants of Palas are clear about one thing - they must protect their forests from outsiders and control grazing so that new trees can grow.

Piles upon piles of timber lined the Karakoram Highway as we drove up to Pattan (an hour's drive from Besham). We would turn a curve in the road and then yet another pile of logs would greet us - it continued for quite a while and we drove in silence, paying our last respects to the thousands of trees that had borne the brunt of the carnage. They must have slaughtered an entire forest to get so many tree trunks. The piles were almost 10 feet high and they appeared to be Deodar wood - it takes almost 100 years for a Deodar tree to mature, hence the horrified silence in the car.

"Yes, there must be over a lakh of trees that are lined up on the road. They claim that they cut these trees back in the 1990s before the ban on logging was enforced in the NWFP, but we are sure that there are many freshly cut ones as well," we were informed by members of the World Pheasant Association (WPA) who are based in Tehsil Palas in the Kohistan District.

The timber was dragged out from Palas valley and nearby forested areas and lined up on the road only around a year ago. Slowly, it is being sold to contractors who will pay only Rs 6O per tree. In Lahore. the same wood will fetch Rs 2,200! The Kohistanis are being ripped off by the contractors and they are only now beginning to realise the real value of the precious forests which cover their mountainous ridges. "The people of Palas have become very aware now."

"They've realised the mistake they've made by selling their forests. Now some villagers are so wary of outsiders, they won't even let the Forest Department into their community managed conifer forests," explains Rab Nawaz, who is heading the WPA and has been working in Palas Valley for over 10 years now.

Freshly Cut Tree in Kohistan

The NGO has worked hard to raise awareness about the value of the forests in Kohistan. The 30,000 inhabitants of Palas at least are clear about one thing - they must protect their forests from outsiders and control grazing so that new trees can grow. "If we can save our forests, it is better for us in the long run," says Ghulamullah, a local villager. "Slowly, change is coming to Kohistan."

The Kohistanis are, of course, fiercely opposed to outsiders coming into their valleys and they have been resistant to change for many years. Initially, Rab Nawaz had a hard time winning over their trust. It is not easy to just walk into Palas Valley unless you know the local villagers or are accompanied by members of the NGO.

The local people are generally a suspicious lot - their homes are perched on mountaintops and yet even those homes have small towers with gun turrets! Feuds over land holdings and women are commonplace. Women don't have many rights here and observe strict purdah. There are no schools for girls and only a few primary schools for boys. The people are staunchly religious and follow an austere interpretation of Islam. They all voted for a Maulvi in the last elections, although next year they say they will 'wait and see'. This is a highly conservative and closed society. However, the twenty first century is intruding - just across the bridge over the Indus lies the KKH which has opened up so many other remote mountain valleys in this region.

The picturesque Palas Valley, its mountain ridges hidden in clouds, lies just opposite the town of Pattan on the KKH and has long been known in scientific circles both in Pakistan and abroad as a biodiversity hotspot. Half the valley, which is 1,300 square km, lies inside the monsoon belt while half is outside and the great range in altitude means that there is a great variety of habitats, from sub-tropical to alpine. Upper Palas has pristine forests, home to rare species of pheasants like the Western Tragopan which was thought to be extinct but was spotted and then captured on film in the valley by the late wildlife cameraman Reza Abbas (he recently passed away in Karachi).

The people of Palas have always respected their natural environment. They consider it unlucky to cut a green tree in spring, but they do have to feed their children as well and Kohistan is a poverty stricken region where jobs are rare and every day is a struggle for survival. People own small plots of terraced land and basically live off what they can grow. Many men go in search of work in Karachi and other large cities.

During our visit to Sherakot village in Palas Valley, we met a school boy who had won an award for his poem which was about how life is expensive but death is cheap in Kohistan. The mountain people. with their tall physiques and rugged good looks have survived for centuries in this harsh albeit beautiful environment. But the recent earthquake that hit Pakistan on October 8, 2005 devastated many of their homes. Although there was relatively little loss of lives since most people were out in the fields, almost a 1,000 houses were destroyed. The houses near the forested areas, however, were saved. The trees had protected them from land sliding.

With winter only a few months away, the people of Kohistan have wisely decided to go ahead and rebuild their homes and not wait for handouts from the government. As a result, however, more trees have had to be cut in the area for construction purposes. We climbed up to a mountain ridge above the earthquake hit village of Sherakot and were distressed to see more conifer trees that had been freshly cut, A half hours walk into the forest, however, and we came into densely forested mountainsides where the only sounds one heard was the cry of birds. Unfortunately, we could not make it into upper Palas with its pristine forests full of pheasants, as the jeep track leading into that part of the valley was damaged by recent land sliding. The forests in this part of Palas have been saved because they are a full one day's trek by foot from the jeep track. The timber mafia couldn't get into the upper part of this valley.

We spent our two days in Palas visiting the nearby villages and learning about the Palas Non Timber Forest Products Management Project initiated by the NGO. The idea is to provide alternatives to commercial timber cutting. The project helps the local people to grow fruit trees like walnut and apple in order for them to make some extra money. The project also teaches them about the various medicinal plants that are found in the forests which can be used for the treatment of both humans and livestock and which have cash value. The NGO has hired a local hakeem to compile a herbarium that has more than 100 sheets on each medicinal plant and its value.

They have also provided some homes with honeybee boxes that have indigenous bees. The honey can be sold in the local market and provide income to households. In Upper Palas, there are many chilghoza forests and the NGO is also teaching them how to extract the chilghoza nuts without damaging the trees. They are also teaching the local villagers how to market the nuts and sell them in the bigger markets. "Slowly, people are becoming aware of the benefits of all these trainings," says Mohd Nawaz, a local villager. "We have formed a special interest group and we will be selling the chilgozas together in September after harvest time"

The aim of the project is to conserve the moist temperate forests of Palas Valley by introducing the concept of managing non timber forest products. The project is working with community based organisations in the valley and is funded by the UNDP's Small Grants Programme to Promote Tropical Forests. The process is slow but word is spreading throughout the valley and even villagers outside the project area now want to participate in the project. The local villagers understand that they can make more money from these yearly activities than by selling their timber every 20 years.

The forest can yield so many more valuable products - mushrooms, wild fruits, vegetables - which if marketed properly can be sold for profit in the large towns and cities of Pakistan. Imagine eating fruit and vegetables that have not been treated with pesticides or fertilizers. The KKH is so close that transportation would not be a problem. The forests of Kohistan can be saved it the people realise the value of the treasure they contain within their thick foliage.