April - June, 2010 - Sustainable Development Policy Institute

SDPISustainable Development Policy Instituteagriculture with a loan of nearlyRs900, 000 from the Punjab RuralSupport Programme with a 13-percentinterest rate.The issue fundamentally is thescheme of converting forests intoagricultural land.In Punjab, the British governmentduring colonisation established 50to 100 acres of land near everyvillage to establish forests.Needless to say that even after theintroduction of local governmentsin 2001, in view of the importanceof forests in the overallenvironment, the ecology createdduring the British era was nottampered with.I would like to request the ChiefMinister Punjab to promote thesignificance of trees for thesurvival and well-being ofhumanity. Trees not only keep theatmosphere clean and healthy, butold trees also add to the localhumidity through transpiration.Forests, therefore, play a vital rolein regulating regional climate byproviding the base for continuityof water cycles. They also play acritical role in climate regulationby absorbing carbon dioxide, a gasbelieved to be partially responsiblefor global warming. Thus forestsare considered so vital for humanexistence that the Holy Prophet(PBUH) forbade cutting of a treeeven during wars.Trees do not grow overnight buttake decades to mature. Thus,instead of converting forests intoagricultural land forwhatever reason, thePunjab governmentmust protect its foreststo save the province inparticular and thecountry in general fromperilous loss of green cover.It is hoped that the Chief MinisterPunjab in order to accommodate1,200 unemployed youth shouldeither lease them governmentagricultural lands or offer themjobs in forestry or agro-forestry soas to protect the already-dwindlingforests from further destruction.SYED SHAHNAWAZ SHAHTando AdamWWF-PAKISTAN REPORT18.5% of forestland converted into non-forest usesThe News Rawalpindi/Islamabad, June 26, 2010By Aftab KakenIslamabad -- The federalgovernment should not only blockany future land transfers fromforest department to anydepartment but also take back thepreviously transferred land backinto a protected forest, said areport launched by the WWF-Pakistan here on Friday.The study has been commissionedby the scientific committee ofWWF-Pakistan to identify allforest areas in the country thatwere transferred from the variousprovincial forest departments forother land uses.It is shocking that an over 61,000hectares (151548 acres), which is18.5% of the forestland, has beenconverted to non-forest uses,revealed Dr Kauser AbdullahMalik, chairman of the scientificcommittee of the WWF-Pakistanat National Press Club.Dr Bashir Ahmed Wani, ex-IGforest in his presentation alsoshared that the last largestconversion of forestland has takenin Punjab, which is 66% of thetotal deforestation while Sindh issecond and termed it distressing asgovernment continues to convertmore forestland.In their recommendations, theWWF-Pakistan proposed theMinistry of Environment to movea summary to the prime ministerfor imposing restrictions on thetransfer of forestlands for nonforestryuses as done in the case ofban on commercial harvesting offorests.It also recommends the withdrawalof powers of de-notification underForest Act 1927 and any otherprovincial law under existinglegislation is amended and issuedirection to the provincialgovernments for restrictingprovincial board of revenue totransfer land to any agency.An advisory board will beconstituted at the federal level withrepresentation from the provincesand Board of Revenue (BoR) tolay down procedure for the awardof forestlands for non-forestry usesin case such transfers areunavoidable and alternate land isnot available, it added.The recent FAO report on the stateof World Forests 2009 mentionsthat the annual rate ofdeforestation in Pakistan is 2.1%the highest among all the countriesin Asia.It is hoped that this report will helpblock all future transfers ofprecious forestland for other uses,and that as much as possible, landsthat have been previouslyPakistan Forest Digest Vol. 1, No. 1, April – June, 2010