PESHAWAR, May 10: The provincial government has launched a forest management project for conservation of natural resources and forests in the Frontier province, NWFP Secretary Environment Noor-ul-Haq said here on Wednesday.

“The plan of launching the Joint Forest Management project was finalised following a survey conducted by the Swiss government in the 1990s,” he told APP.

Under the programme, he said, Forest Management Committees are being set up at village and union council levels aimed at educating masses on forest conservation, biodiversity, eco-system and clean environment issues.

Mr Haq, who is also the secretary, Forests, Wildlife, Fisheries and Transport, said that an eight-member committee comprising stakeholders; NGOs and either a divisional forest officer or a range forest officer have been included to solve forest-related matters.

He said the Swiss government has given an Integrated Natural Resource Management Project of Rs80 million with an aim to safeguard forest cover under the umbrella of the Joint Forest Management Programme.

He said: “Under the project, we have selected three model districts — Hangu, Dir Lower and Haripur — to monitor and evaluate the performance of Forest Management Committees.” The project will continue for three years, he added.

He said that so far about 200 Forest Management Committees had been set up in different districts of the NWFP.

Mr Haq said the department has given Rs3.5million to the City Development and Municipal Department to cover waste drains falling between the Karkhano Market and Hayatabad and to control the menace of water pollution.

When asked about an unknown virus attack on some conifer trees at Kotigram in Upper Dir district, he said that two teams of the Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar, and the Directorate of Research and Development, NWFP, had visited the affected area to find out its causes. However, he said, the situation was under control.

During the last three years, he said forest cover was increased from 17 per cent to 17.08 per cent, adding the department under its 10-year plan would increase forest cover from 17.8 per cent to 25 per cent of the total land area of the NWFP.—APP