The Ministry of Climate Change has decided to take the National Forest Policy-2015 to Council of Common Interests (CCI) for approval after getting cold shoulder from chief secretaries of all the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan. The Ministry has rolled out first-ever policy to protect the forests by ensuring implementation of the laws and engaging the communities but without official nod of the provinces.
Forestry has become a provincial subject since Pakistan's federal Ministry of Environment was devolved to provincial authorities under the 18th constitutional amendment back in 2010. The federal government is now powerless to implement the policy without provincial governments support.
The policy, a copy of which is available with Business Recorder, says Pakistan is one of the low forest cover countries with only five percent of land area under natural forests and tree cover. The new policy envisages increasing the forest cover from five percent to nine percent in the next 15 years. All projects and programmes having significant carbon footprints shall allocate a portion of the total cost, depending upon level of emissions, towards establishment of forest carbon sinks, either onsite or off-site, it says.
"The large dams projects shall allocate at least one percent of the total cost for watershed management including afforestation, regeneration, biodiversity conservation, wetlands, restoration and bio-engineering," it says. The policy also urges armed forces and all national organisations to implement long-term afforestation programmes on the available lands in their possession. "All federating units shall promote, with economic incentives, forestry on farmlands to increase tree cover on arable lands presently not under cultivation due to any constraint," it says.
Under the policy, the federal government also plans to establish a legally empowered Timber Regulatory Authority to check inter-provincial movement and trade of timber to apprehend illegal consignments and plead in the courts of law. The authority shall adopt a system of timber certification to regulate inter-provincial trade, international imports and exports of timber and related forest products, it says.
"Wherever needed, the government may strengthen Timber Regulatory Authority with the assistance of armed forces and law enforcement agencies to control forest crimes," the policy says. The government shall ensure implementation of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in accordance with the international agreements, it says. "The benefits arising from REDD+ shall be fully transferred to the owners and right holders," it says.
About international obligations and opportunities, the policy says the government shall mobilise funds for forest protection and development from bilateral and multilateral sources including Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF). "The government shall enhance capacity of all federating units on preparing and negotiating forest proposals for funding under NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) and GCF," it says.
About implementation of all these mechanisms, the policy says the Ministry of Climate Change shall develop, in consultation with all stakeholders, an action plan for its implementation. "The action plan will assign specific responsibilities to stakeholders with quantifiable targets to be achieved within given timeframe," it says.
When contacted, Arif Ahmad Khan, Secretary at the Ministry of Climate Change, said he had written separate letters to all the provincial chief secretaries for their feedback on the policy but nobody has replied so far. "We are considering taking the policy to the Council of Common Interests with a hope that all provinces will agree with our draft," he said.