ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: Speakers at a seminar here on Thursday asked the government to provide necessary legislative and institutional arrangements to check the alarming level of deforestation in the country.

Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) had organised the seminar on “Public-Private Partnerships in the Forestry Sector in Pakistan”.

Speaking on the occasion, Amjad Nazir of the Sungi Development Organisation gave an overview of the forestry in the country and its problems and policies of the government for running this crucial agricultural sector.

In the forest law of 1992, there was the provision for joint forest management committees (JFMC) but its role in regulating, regenerating and managing the forest was not properly envisaged.

The forest department officials were also given some arbitrary powers, including desolation of the JFMC.

Ali Sharukh Paracha of the SDPI said small forest owners, rights holders, non-owners, women and grazers depended on forests for livelihood. But, stakeholders were steadily being marginalised and often exploited by the timber mafia.

“The complicated and delicate issue of ownership needs to be resolved before partnerships can become effective,” he observed.

Mr Paracha said the forest department had been reluctant to concede these rights and entitlements. Many were coerced into selling these rights at throwaway prices to the timber mafia.

He identified cooperatives, service contrast, management and lease contracts, built operation and transfer (BOT) schemes as main types of forest management process and the role of the private sector in this regard. Education, health, sanitation, water, transport and forestry were the main sectors where public- private partnerships could be formed, he added.