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By APD writer Muhammad Sohail
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 9 (APD) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has launched a project to reverse the deforestation and forest degradation in Pakistan, an official said on Saturday.
An official from the Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change said that the FAO will arrange financial support through Global Environment Facility (GEF) for the project, which will cover forests in different areas of the country.
The five-year project, which will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change, and provincial forest departments of Pakistan, will contribute towards improving the environment and enhancing resilience through chilgoza pine, also known as pinus gerardiana.
The GEF, which is the largest public donor for projects aimed at improving the global environment, will provide financial support to cover forests in Pakistan’s southwest province of Balochistan, tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, and northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Regarding the project, a two-day national validation workshop was arranged in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad with participation from federal and provincial governments, forest departments and local and international development partners.
According to the FAO, the chilgoza pine forest ecosystem in Pakistan is subjected to negative impacts of climate change.
The chilgoza pine is an important member of the unique ecosystem of the dry temperate ecological zone and has the potential to contribute billions of rupees to the economy by providing non-timber forest products and fuel wood.
Mina Dowlatchahi, the FAO Representative in Pakistan, said “collection and processing of Chilgoza have a tremendous potential to provide a good source of income by supporting local livelihoods. This project will provide a mechanism to achieve successful restoration of forests.”
Under the project, the FAO and its partners aim to strengthen the regulatory and policy environment for integrated and sustainable management of Chilgoza forests, conserving and restoring chilgoza forest landscape and building capacity of local institutions.
Pakistan is at the seventh position among the countries those are most likely to be affected by global warming, and has one of the highest deforestation rates in Asia.
Due to continuous tree cutting and lack of new plantation have reduced Pakistan’s forests to less than 3 percent of its land area. Pakistan’s forest resources are shrinking at a rate of one percent annually which has already started leaving dreadful effects on its people.
Pakistan has already faced untimely torrential rains and floods during last one decade, and analysts said this has been happening due to deforestation in the country.
Pakistan’s northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has already won a praise from all-around the world for successfully planting and growing one billion trees during last three years.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
