Editoral-Rampant deforestation

A slaughter is in progress across the country. We are destroying the environment with little regard for the ecological and socio-economic consequences of this plunder that benefits an elect few and damages the health and livelihoods of the poor. Species are dying out and our rivers and harbours have been turned into toxic cesspools. Officialdom’s apathy in all this is appalling and yet understandable because in many cases it is a party to the devastation. Take deforestation, which is just one of many environmental issues of grave concern.

The latest findings of the World Wide Fund for Nature reveal that Pakistan’s already meagre forest cover is being depleted by 2.1 per cent, the highest annual deforestation rate in Asia. Much of this reduction can be attributed to the official policy of changing the status of forest lands and allowing their use for other purposes. According to the WWF, more than 150,000 acres of forest have been lost in this way since the country’s inception in 1947. Encroachers and commercial harvesters, often called the timber mafia, have also played havoc with their authorised as well as illegal felling.

Pakistan’s once lush mangrove stands, which serve as natural hatcheries and offer protection against tidal surges, have taken the biggest hit with an annual depletion rate of nearly 2.3 per cent. Estimates vary but it is believed that the mangrove cover along the coast has fallen from nearly 1.5 million acres in 1966 to just about 420,000 acres today, and even this shockingly low count is seen by some as generous. Deforestation, be it in the Indus delta or the mountains, carries severe socio-economic costs. The livelihoods and way of life of local communities that use forests in sustainable ways — collecting fallen branches for fuel, grazing livestock, etc — can be ruined beyond repair by rampant logging. Deforestation is also associated with climate change while Pakistan has already seen an increase in deadly landslides, flash floods and the silting of major dams. All this is preventable and reforestation is the need of the hour. But for that to happen we need rulers who actually care.

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