short notes of vanishing forest
Answers
Forests keep the planet alive and play a key role in the battle against climate change. Forests feed rivers and are essential in replenishing the water table; they maintain soil fertility and minimise the often devastating impact of storms, floods and fires. They are the green lungs of the earth. But despite all of these priceless ecological, economic, social and health benefits, people are destroying the very forests they need to live and breathe.
Environmental degradation in Pakistan is a well-documented fact and this degradation is impacting the entire national social and economic landscape. It covers all natural resources e.g. forests, wetlands, land and air. Soil erosion, degradation of organic matter, water logging, salinity and loss of cover of natural vegetation are the visible damage.
Water basins are depleting, water pollution is on the rise and there are no checks and balances in place to control the pollution of water by industrial and household waste. Shakeel Ahmad Ramay of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, painted a bleak picture regarding environment degradation in the country.
“Forest cover is shrinking due to over exploitation of forest resources for private incentives and lack of awareness and ownership among the masses. The timber mafia is another factor behind the loss of forest cover. Pakistan is losing agricultural productivity, biodiversity and livelihood opportunities for the masses. Besides desertification, wetlands are also facing serious threats. Likewise, the quality of air is also deteriorating due to presence of chemical pollution. On top of it all, weak institutional arrangements by the government are further aggravating the situation”, he lamented.
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Tanveer Arif, head of Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE), revealed that the total area of forests in Pakistan is 4.224 million hectares which is 4.8 per cent of the total land area. Farmland trees and linear planting along roadsides, canal banks and railway tracks covering an estimated area of 466,000 hectares and 16,000 hectares respectively do not constitute forests within the context of the legal, ecological or cilvicultural/management definition of forests.
The situation is also similar, but to a less sever extent, in the case of miscellaneous plantations over an area of 155,000 hectares. If the area of these three categories of plantations is excluded from total forest area of 4.224 million hectares, the latter is reduced to 3.587 million hectares which is approximately 4.1 per cent of the total area.
Plant biodiversity is also under tremendous pressure due to population explosion, unplanned urbanisation, deforestation and over-exploitation of natural resources. Unfortunately, very little work has been done on threatened plants of Pakistan and extremely limited information is available on this subject.