The NWFP forest sector

The North West Frontier Province has been bestowed with abundant forest wealth but these are under threat of extinction. Experts say the forest resources are endangered by lack of strong monitoring mechanism, deforestation, corruption, smuggling, haphazard management, extravagant use and the inability to raise more forests in the province. The forest sector could help solve the economic woes of the frontier province.
For this, experts and officials say scientific management, economic use, vigilant monitoring, protection and sustained development of forest must be ensured. They also urge participatory management of the forests, reclaiming of water-logged and saline areas for forest development and provision of cost-free tree saplings to the people to encourage aforestation. According to an estimate, Pakistan has a total forest area of 4.2 million hectares (mh).
Around 1.3mh (30 percent) of it is located in Frontier. The province itself has a covered forest area of 17 percent. In 2007, NWFP forest resources - comprising Deodar, pine, Chilghoza, Fir, Nandar, Partal, Kail and other precious trees- spread over an area of over 5million acres with their biggest concentration in Malakand and Hazara divisions. Pakistan's forest cover of about 4.8 percent is much lower than the international standard forest cover of 25 percent.
India has 24 percent, Japan 36pc, Sri-Lanka 42pc, Philippines 44pc, Korea 50pc, Bhutan 50pc, and Brunei has 90pc of its total areas covered by forests. According to an official of the forest department, the forest resources are divided between reserved, protected and un-classed forests (state-owned) and communal and Guzara (community-owned) forests. "Out of the 5ma forest area, 1.64 was state owned while the communal and guzara forests constituted 0.12ma and 1.12ma. Another 1.76ma comprised private plantation.
Besides, the forest area on sides of canal/roads was recorded at 8600 avenue kilometres in the province. There were also hundreds of thousands of sheesham trees in different districts especially in Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda. Most were destroyed by the die-back disease and others are at risk. It warrants urgent attention," he said.
Forests have been one of the revenue generation sources. It earned Rs 538m, Rs 539m and Rs 584m in three years from 2006 to 2008. For 2009-10, the government has set a target of Rs 584 million for the sector. The sector could fetch even more if smuggling is curtailed. Indiscriminate deforestation is playing havoc with the forest wealth in the country as well as in Frontier.
As per official estimates, from 1990 to 2005, the deforestation ratio in the country was recorded at 2.1 percent, which meant disappearance of 47000 hectares of forest resources annually. The estimate said that deforestation was the highest for coniferous forests in NWFP and Northern Areas. Experts believe that deforestation is causing a loss of approximately Rs 65 billions to the state-owned forests alone.
Deforestation has gained momentum as rich aristocrats want to build luxury villas in Murree and Guliyat in violation of laws. The forest department is unfortunately showing lack of interest to stop it. There are also wide-spread but unconfirmed complaints of collaboration of forest department with the timber mafia in Hazara and Malakand divisions.
On a visit to Kalam (Swat) in 1988, this writer had seen a thick forest close to a village Jailbanr lying some 1.5 km to the east of bazaar. When I went to the area again in 2002, it was there no more. I was told the locals had utilised the wood there for fuel and home-construction purposes.
Haji Jan Mohammad in Kalam had told this writer then that the government should provide gas to the area as soon as possible. Any delay will be disastrous for the forests here. Deforestation is bound to increase as due to increased population, more and more forest wood will be used for construction and heating of homes and hotels.
This writer tried to contact the Chief conservator forest NWFP Nazir Mohammad Khan for four consecutive days. The writer even left messages with his secretary but the attempts failed to draw any response. According to reports, militancy has dealt severe blows to forest resources in Malakand and adjacent Hazara division. The forest department has prepared an initial damage assessment report.
The concerned official was, however, not available for comments. A report published in the press said during 2007 to 2009, about fifty percent of forests had been destroyed in Malakand division and the total loss came to around 148 billions. The figures could not be confirmed.
Smuggling of timber has been one of the biggest problems. As per reports, millions of cubic feet of confiscated timber lay in open in Mansehra and Kohistan for years for the government's decision thereon. At last, recently, the government decided that these would be returned to its owners after levying a fine over it. The NWFP minister for information Mian Iftikhar Hussain was reported as having said that the government had three options.
"We could have confiscated the timber for good but its transportation to timber markets in Dargai and Goharabad was difficult due to security concerns for officials. To stop smuggling in future, huge deployment of Frontier constabulary was needed, which was not feasible in given circumstances. So the decision to levy fine on the timber," he said.
Minister for forest and environment Wajid Ali Khan said despite being a revenue generator, the department was not given due attention. "Human resource of the department was never developed. The forest guards, scavengers and other officials lack modern equipments such as wireless and sophisticated weapons. Their capacity building through provision of modern equipments and training was neglected."
Khan said the department also faced shortage of personnel. "A guard has to cover an area of approximately three thousand acres. "There are fewer forest guards and scavengers. They are not provided official vehicles for their duties. They lack proper equipments and modern communication gadgets like wireless system to quickly pass on information."
The sector is allocated meagre funds. Out of the Rs 51 billion annual development plan of the current fiscal year, only Rs 223m has been allocated for the sector. Surprisingly, of Rs 6.6 billion total foreign assistance, only one million rupees is to be spent on forest sector this year. Also, in the comprehensive development strategy of Rs 583 billions to be followed by the Frontier government in next seven years, not a single penny has been earmarked for the sector.
It is alleged main focus of forest department is how to meet revenue targets and very little attention is given to development of the sector. The forest development corporation (FDC) is dubbed as Forest Deforestation Corporation. An official in FDC however rejected this and said that FDC developed infrastructure in forest zones. He said FDC had ensured scientific exploitation and management of forest. "It has also invested in improved harvesting techniques like cable-yarding that has decreased wastage of timber in extraction."
The forest department produced 1.75 million cubic feet (MCF) of timber in 2007-08. The department had extracted 8.74mcf timber in 2003 and 8.70mcf in 2004 but in 2005 the figure dropped to just 1.6mcf in 2005. The minister said that a scientific management working plan (SMWP) has been prepared using modern satellite imaging technology but said that that it was non-operational at present. "The federal government has banned cutting of trees in 1992.
It should allow implementation of SMWP. This will allow extraction of old, disease-struck trees and trees from congested parts in the forests which is vital for saving the rest of the forest. It will create space for new trees and the government will earn millions from the marketing of the harvested timber," he said. According to him, the atmosphere of the province is very conducive for building more forest reserves and the government aims to increase the forest cover to about 23 percent in the coming years.
"The government has constituted joint forest management committees (JFMCs) comprising government officials and local owners. The JFMCs are fully involved in marking, harvesting and marketing of the timber from the communal and guzara forests. The income from the timber, so extracted, is divided between the government and local owners at fixed ratio." Khan said that there were timber markets at Dargai and Goharabad but timber business didn't develop as both were distant from other parts of the country.
"Now we plan to build another timber market/depot near the NWFP-Punjab border. This will make timber deals easier and cheaper. It hopefully will earn more money for the province as well." According to Shahraz Khan, former forest minister, corruption, deforestation, and smuggling of timber are the biggest threats the sector faces and these should be halted or minimised.
He said there were only 2200 forest guards to cover the province wide forests. "It is but impossible for them to monitor forests under their domain." The ex-minister urged lifting of ban on cutting of old, mature, disease-hit and unnecessary trees from the forests which was imposed by the federal government in 1992 and called for the implementation of SMWP.