KARACHI:Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Sharmila Farooqui on Sunday urged the federal government to make a strategic policy for significantly raising forest cover in the country and penalizing those removing trees illegally.
“Pakistan is a country with low forest cover. There are only 0.03 hactres of forest per capita as compared to the world average of one hactre. With the population growing at 2.6 percent annually, the forest area per capita is declining,” she said in a statement on the occasion of the World Forest Day being observed today. Sharmila said that forest resources are vital for conservation of soil, water resources and biological diversity; therefore, the federal government should fulfill its promise to provide reasonable forest cover to the country.
The forestry sector contributes only 0.3 percent to the GNP. This excludes the indirect benefits that forests provide. The country’s annual wood production is 3.5 million m3, which satisfies the domestic demand for industrial wood, she said. “Forest and related small industries provide employment for more than 500,000 people. Forests and rangelands provide forage to 90 million head of livestock. Forests play a vital role in protecting the watersheds of Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs, which are very important for hydropower generation and for supplying water to extensive irrigation networks in the plains of Punjab and Sindh provinces. Annual damage resulting from floods, soil erosion and siltation of reservoirs is estimated at Rs2.3 billion.”
Deforestation is one of the obstinate environmental problems globally. Pakistan, being a developing nation also encompasses crisis of depletion of forest reserves. She said the forestry sector of Pakistan is a main source of lumber, paper, fuelwood, latex, medicine as well as food and provide ecotourism and wildlife conservation purposes while 1.91% of Pakistan’s land is covered in forest.
She also stressed the need to raise mangroves forest cover in Sindh. “Mangroves cover an area around 600,000 hectares in Sindh, of which 280,470 hectares are owned by the provincial forest department. These forests consist of four mangrove species which include Avicennia marina, Rhizopora mucronata, Ceriops tagal and Aegiceras corniculatum,” she said.
She said that mangrove forests of Indus delta constitute an important ecosystem in the coastal deltaic region formed by the River Indus. Indus delta mangroves are perhaps unique in being the largest arid climate mangroves in the world. They are almost entirely dependent upon freshwater discharges from the River Indus and a small quantity of freshwater from domestic and industrial effluents of Karachi, she added.
Sharmila said that the economic importance of mangroves of Indus delta could be ascertained from the fact that they provide important breeding zone for commercially important marine fish, shrimps, lobsters and crabs. She also stressed the need to raise riverine forest in the country.
The PPP MPA said: “The theme of the International Day of Forests for 2021 is Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being. The restoration and sustainable management of forests can help in addressing the issues related to climate change and biodiversity.”
It also carries the potential to produce goods and services for sustainable development, fostering an economic activity that creates jobs and improves lives. Though plants provide us with unmeasured ecological, economic, social, and health benefits, still global deforestation continues at an alarming rate. Therefore, it becomes necessary for everyone to act in a responsible way and spread consciousness about the importance of saving Forests on global Forests Day 2021, Sharmila concluded.