By: Yasir Ullah
Pakistan face immense problem of deforestation and forest degradation . About less then 5% of its total area is under forest. According to the survey under red plus programe , pakistan between 2000 and 2010 pakisstan has lost 43,000 hectare every year. Behind this another survey conduction give some information that between 2000 and 2019, 15% of the tree cover loss occure in area where the dominent driver of loss resulted in deforestation. In pakistan the top 2 region were responsible for 90% of all tree cover loss between 2001 to 2019 are khyber pakhtun khwa had loss more cover tree loss at 4.42kha compare to an average of 1.20kha. Every year pakistan losses almost 27,000hectare of natural forest area. So it is very important to define proper lines about management of forest, to introduce a system free from external pressure and a way to make official accountable as well as it was found that the majority (59.4 %) respondents stated that the natural disasters are not the cause of deforestation. As there is a great impact of natural hazards or natural disasters on the forests like thunder storms, hail, snowfall or even rains and floods but the local residents of the area stated that anthropogenic causes have more influence on the forests as compared to the natural disasters. The majority (51 %) respondents stated that the main role of tourists in deforestation was fire hazards. Swat valley is known for its scenic beauty and greenery so it attracts a lot of tourists and visitors each year which provides a bunch of opportunities to the local people as their business activities are concerned with these tourists and it helps in their earnings but these tourists also play their role in ruining the natural resources as in the picnic spots they use to cook their own food and there is a high risk of causing fires to the forest, they also disturb the natural environment by doing a lot of activities in the forest areas so the tourists play their role in deforestation by this way. Government takes no interest on the implementation of policies and thus put no effort in reduction of illegal practices. So it is very important to define proper lines about management of forest, to introduce a system free from external pressure and a way to make official accountable as well the positive and negative effects of tourism and recreation activities as the positive effects of tourism are providing employment opportunities to the local people, improvement in the economic level and exchange of ideas and culture etc. Forest as main role to provide oxygen which provide key role in survival of all living organism including human. In Pakistan forests have two important roles to play first is to protect the watershed and purify water and second is to provide timber as prime source. Country has small forest cover and high population pressure. It is important to conserve forests and manage them properly for the stability of environment and for uninterrupted production of wood and related products. People living in the forest areas depend heavily on them, they consume different products from the forest which they use in their houses as well as they also sell these products in the local market for economic purposes.
Impact of Deforestation
Unfortunately there is no proper management system of forests in Pakistan. Department of Forestry is considered as biggest threat to forests. Illegal cutting and trading is common practice in country which is supported by Government official. There is no system of accountability of officers, rules are present to punish public if they do prohibited actions but no policy talks about punishing the official who bring harm to forest or do corruption. There is a strong influence of politicians on forest department. Politicians use their power to violate laws and it badly affects the functioning of forest department and is a hindrance on the way of implementing proper management system and well-defined policies. The negative effects of tourism include the adverse effects on the quality and quantity of the air and water resources, obliteration of landscapes, pollution increase in the prices of goods and the risk of forest fires is increased and the major cause of these environmental challenges are human activities.
Secondly, people living in the forest areas and their dependency on forest for such a long period of time and increase in population have great impact on the depletion of these forests and also cause of threat to species by over exploitation. They also presented the insights of the people dependent on forests in the province concerning the use patterns of forests, situation of forests, and transformations occurring in forest cover. The reasons or agents which are responsible for deforestation is the day by day increase in illicit cutting of the valuable forest trees, the demanding use of wood for house hold requirements like heating of houses in winter, cooking purposes and the wood used in construction and useless forest managing plans. Along with changes in ecosystem , this dependency has made them extremly vulnerable to the further degradation of forest. A large number of household and worker in this region could loss their vocation skillset and habitate. The forest also provide a number of crucial ecosystem survice like their role in sequesting carbon from the atmosphere, protecting upstream, watershed conserving, conserving biodiversityand gene pool for future generation and in providing land scope. The percentage of pakistan area that is forested disputed . The UN,s food and agriculture estimate 2.2% of the total land of pakistan is covered by forest.