'Bad governance behind massive deforestation'

Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and prominent environmentalist Tanveer Arif has said that bad governance is behind massive deforestation in the country.
In an interview to Pakistan Press International (PPI) on Sunday, he said that the country's forests had been hacked to an alarming level, causing loss to green economy and livelihood for poor people. "The deforestation rate in Pakistan is highest in the world. The government needs to restore all forests to 50-year-back level. Other major reasons behind deforestation are allocation of low budgets, lack of government interest, and lease of forest land to influential people," he added.
Arif said that the provinces should raise their forest budgets to at least 5 percent from below 1 percent for raising and managing forests in a better way. He said: "Raising forests will support green economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," he added.
The SCOPE CEO said that though official figures stated Pakistan's forest cover at 5 percent of its total land area, the fact contradicted such figure because lands cleaned of forests had also been included in the forest cover.
He said that influential people had occupied vast areas of land in Pakistan, which needed to be retrieved. "It is possible to retrieve forest land from feudal lords in future, but it needs good governance or revolution," he added.
He said: "Pakistan inherited feudal system from British Raj. Land distribution in Pakistan is highly unequal, as 5 percent of large landholders possess 64 percent of total farm land and 65 percent small farmers hold 15 percent of land. Almost 40 percent of the land is owned by only 2.5 percent households and 24 percent land owned by only 0.4 households. The large land holders have all political powers and economic advantages," he added.
Arif further said that 50.8 percent of rural households were landless while the poverty amongst rural landless people was high.
The SCOPE CEO said that a corporate farming was initiated in Pakistan during former President Pervez Musharraf's government, which was against the rights of farmers. "Some Gulf countries have purchased lands in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan that will cause water scarcity and deprive local farming community of their rights. It will also cause food insecurity in rural areas, putting the livelihood of poor people at stake. Such kind of land purchasing is land grabbing, so there is a dire need to accelerate efforts against such onslaughts," he added.
He said that mangrove forests along coastal belt of Thatta, Badin and Karachi were being hacked fast, which needed to be stopped through better forest management and good governance. "Mangrove forests reduce intensity of cyclones and are breeding ground of fish; therefore, it is mandatory to save and raise such forests for protecting cities and coastal areas from submerging. Mangrove tree plantation is easy and cheaper than other trees, so it should be raised massively," he added.
He said that economic importance of mangroves of Indus delta could be ascertained from the fact that they provided important breeding zone for commercially important marine fish, shrimps, lobsters and crabs which helped national economy to earn foreign exchange of US $100 million annually from exports, besides providing employment and livelihood to more than 100,000 people associated with fishing industry. "It is estimated that 90 percent commercially important tropical marine fish species, especially prawn, spend some part of their lives in the mangroves. If the mangroves are degraded then at least 250,000 tons of fish caught off the Sindh coast will be at risk," he added.