‘Amended Punjab Forest Act 1927 to destroy forest lands’

LAHORE

The WWF-Pakistan has expressed grave concern over the recently amended Punjab Forest Act 1927 and claimed that the amendments will pave way for the destruction of protected forest lands in Punjab.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday, the WWF officials said this would have an adverse effect on the biodiversity of the province and would compound the problem of climate change,  the impacts of which Pakistan regularly faced in the form of floods, droughts, heatwaves and cyclones.

 The Punjab Forests (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 was promulgated after the approval of the Governor of Punjab on January 26, 2016. Section 27 and 34-A of the Act have been repealed whereas subsection 3 has been inserted according to which the provincial government, after the approval of the provincial cabinet, can declare the conversion of a reserve forest or any part of reserved forestland to any other land use.

In 2010, the government of Punjab imposed a ban on the use of forest land for non-forestry purposes by introducing amendments to the Forest Act 1927. This move was welcomed by the WWF-Pakistan as a step towards conserving the country’s already depleting forest cover.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s state of forest report of 2010, at 2.4% per pear Pakistan has the highest rate of deforestation in Asia. The reasons for this include an increasing gap between demand and supply of wood, dependence of local populations on forest for livelihood, no mechanism to give incentives or compensations to forest protectors and climate change factors including drought, floods and fires.

Hammad Naqi Khan, Director General, WWF-Pakistan, was of the opinion that “Pakistan, along with over 190 countries, signed a groundbreaking deal on climate change action at the UN climate talks held in December 2015 in Paris. The text clearly acknowledges the significance of forests and recognises the importance of incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation and sustainable management of forests. The Punjab government’s decision comes as a shock to us after following the landmark COP21 agreement according to which Pakistan has pledged its commitment on the international stage.”  

The contributions of forests to the well-being of humankind are far reaching. Forests provide vital wood supplies and help to combat rural poverty, ensure food security, offer watershed protection and provide decent livelihoods. They also provide habitats to diverse animal species and keep global warming in check by absorbing carbon dioxide. Over the past 50 years, about half the world's original forest cover has been lost. 

According to Dr Uzma Khan, Director Species Conservation, WWF-Pakistan “Since 1947, Punjab province alone converted 40,352 hectare of forest land into other non-forest uses. The amendment of 2010 in the Forest Act 1927 ended the identification of reserved and protected forests which was a milestone towards the forest conservation in the province. Unfortunately, now it is being revoked which will have detrimental impacts to forest dependent species of Punjab such as the common leopard, grey goral, barking deer, Punjab urial and many species of birds. Many of these species are locally categorised as critically endangered and habitat protection and availability is key to their survival. Squeezing habitats will exasperate conflicts between the wildlife and communities.” 

It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan in general and Punjab in particular is deficient in forest resources. According to the Landcover Atlas of Pakistan published by the Pakistan Forest Institute in 2012, the forest cover in Punjab has dropped down from 0.608 million hectare to 0.550 million hectare since 1992. This means that Punjab is losing its forest cover at an alarming rate of 2,900 hectare per year. The province has 4.1 percent of its total land reserved for protected forest which falls short of the international standards.