Source: The News
Dated: June 26, 2010
The federal government should not only block any future land transfers from forest department to any department but also take back the previously transferred land back into a protected forest, said a report launched by the WWF-Pakistan here on Friday.
The study has been commissioned by the scientific committee of WWF-Pakistan to identify all forest areas in the country that were transferred from the various provincial forest departments for other land uses.
“It is shocking that an over 61,000 hectares (151548 acres), which is 18.5% of the forestland, has been converted to non-forest uses,” revealed Dr Kauser Abdullah Malik, chairman of the scientific committee of the WWF-Pakistan at National Press Club.
Dr Bashir Ahmed Wani, ex-IG forest in his presentation also shared that the last largest conversion of forestland has taken in Punjab, which is 66% of the total deforestation while Sindh is second and termed it distressing as government continues to convert more forestland.
In their recommendations, the WWF-Pakistan proposed the Ministry of Environment to move a summary to the prime minister for imposing restrictions on the transfer of forestlands for non-forestry uses as done in the case of ban on commercial harvesting of forests.
It also recommends the withdrawal of powers of de-notification under Forest Act 1927 and any other provincial law under existing legislation is amended and issue direction to the provincial governments for restricting provincial board of revenue to transfer land to any agency.
An advisory board will be constituted at the federal level with representation from the provinces and Board of Revenue (BoR) to lay down procedure for the award of forestlands for non-forestry uses in case such transfers are unavoidable and alternate land is not available, it added.
The recent FAO report on the state of World Forests 2009 mentions that the annual rate of deforestation in Pakistan is 2.1% — the highest among all the countries in Asia.
It is hoped that this report will help block all future transfers of precious forestland for other uses, and that as much as possible, lands that have been previously transferred are also gradually restored as forestland.
The Government of Pakistan has given a commitment to global community under Millennium Development Goals to increase the forest cover in the country to 6% by the year 2015, but not enough corresponding action has been taken to disaggregate this target down to the provinces, districts and tehsils.
As outlined in this report, the largest conservations of forestland have taken place in Punjab and Sindh corresponding to 99,711 acres and 27,874 acres respectively.
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