All the forests of the country will be covered under a proper forest management/work plan to ensure efficient monitoring and evaluation for sustainability of the forest resources.
This was decided in the sixth meeting of the Federal Forestry Board (FFB) with Federal Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi in the chair and attended by the representatives and chief conservators of the provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Northern Areas here on Monday,.
The FFB reviewed the policy on commercial harvesting, and decided that scientific management of forest would be implemented after receiving inputs from all the provinces. The FFB stressed upon the National Highway Authority (NHA) to complete Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Islamabad, Murree Express Way with public hearing and involving Punjab Forest Department.
The FFB expressed concern over degradation of Simly Catchments due to construction of road and non-implementation of rehabilitation measures. The board decided that mass plantation of 10 million trees on one day would be a major event during the National Year of Environment 2009.
The board also discussed co-ordination between forest departments and wildlife departments, and decided to establish a separate wildlife department in Northern Areas and Balochistan.
The board recommended that training and capacity building of provincial forest departments' officials on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project Development. It is also decided that Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI) would be transformed into a Forestry Centre of Excellence by allocating sufficient resources.