ANR programme under way for natural growth of trees on vacant forest lands

Islamabad : The ‘Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR)’ programme is under way to utilize seventy per cent of the forest land that is still available for natural growth of trees.

According to the working paper prepared by the climate change ministry, the ANR programme is considered the quickest, cheapest and most effective way for natural growth of trees on the forest land.

“Only thirty percent forest land has tree cover, which means seventy percent of land is still available for natural growth of trees. The ANR programme will greatly help utilize the remaining land and increase tree cover in the country,” it said.

It said the climate change ministry has adopted a 3 Ps strategy to make the ANR programme a success including protection from fire incidents, protection from timber mafia and protection from animals. In 2010, Pakistan had 648kha of tree cover, extending over 0.74 per cent of its land area. In 2020, it lost 81.2ha of tree cover, equivalent to 24.8kt of CO2 of emissions.

The ANR programme has been designed on the basis of fact that the conventional treatment of forestry as a stand-alone wood-producing sub-sector has been transformed into a cross-cutting subject impacting a number of economic sectors including water, energy, agriculture, health, housing, tourism and communication.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said the ANR is a simple, low-cost restoration method that can effectively enhance the productivity and ecosystem functions of deforested or degraded lands.

“The method aims to accelerate, rather than replace, natural successional processes by removing or reducing barriers to natural regeneration such as soil degradation, competition with weedy species, and recurring disturbances such as fire, grazing and wood harvesting.