Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is the hub of Pakistan’s ecological economy and home to 36pc of Pakistan’s total forest land. There is but one ailment: a blanket ban slapped in 1992 on harvesting all types of trees (including fallen and dry trees) has hindered the creation of an integrated forest management plan. It is almost as if the authorities concerned have literally missed the forest for the trees.

“Lifting the ban has now become a political issue,” an official of the forest department, requesting anonymity, told Dawn. “But in the 21 years since the ban was enforced, no forest management plan for the province was ever created or implemented,” he argued.

Environmentalists and officials agree with the assessment. The decades-long ban has proved counterproductive, many experts argue, claiming that illegal harvesting has increased and timber smuggling burgeoned while the ban stays in order. Perhaps more critically, authorities have also been prevented from the removal of “dead, dry and diseased trees” — a process that is essential for the regeneration of forests and forest land. This has directly translated into a strain on KP’s forest resources.

“KP’s forest resources are under pressure because of multiple factors; growth in population at the rate of 2.8pc, settlements and natural calamities, as well as the dependence of local communities on forests. But the greatest danger is posed by the rapacious timber mafia,” claimed KP Chief Conservator Forests Younus Khan.

Back in 1992, flash floods had wrecked havoc in KP: environmentalists had concluded that the damage was magnified because large swathes of forest land in Malakand, Hazara and the Northern Areas had been lost because of deforestation. This prompted the then-government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to slap a blanket ban on harvesting of all types of trees — a prohibition that is enforced even today.

The rationale of the ban takes into account the fact that KP is a water-head province, with 10 major rivers originating from here while snow and glaciers cover 813,530 hectares, charging water bodies and irrigating the land. Since trees play a key role in flood management, conservation of water resources and protection of biodiversity, forests in KP play an important role in averting flooding in the country’s plains.

As things stand, some 1.51million hectares out of the total 7.45 million hectare area of KP are covered by forests. This includes state-owned forest covered area, called reserved forests and which constitute 6pc of the forest land. The other 94pc of forest lands belong to local communities, especially in the mountainous Malakand and Hazara divisions. According to international standards, about 25pc area of any country or state should be covered with trees and forests. While KP falls short on this standard, it is still ahead of the other provinces.

Perhaps tellingly, experts and officials disagree over the exact cover of forest land in the province. For example, there are disagreements over the figures reported in a Geographical Information System (GIS) survey, that was designed by the Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI), Peshawar. The GIS survey claims over 3pc increase in forest land cover of the province.

PFI’s report “Land Cover Atlas-2011 of Pakistan” also reveals that forests/tree-cover has extended to an area of 1.51million hectare (excluding alpine pasture which is 649,721 hectares), which makes 20.3pc of the total land of the KP. In 1992 forests/tree-covered area of the province was 17.6pc, officials said. According to the GIS survey, forests extending over an area of 0.53m hectares approximately cover 19.5pc of the total land of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) adjacent to KP. Another report compiled by the PFI about forest-related statistics of Pakistan claims that 11.4pc area of KP was covered with forests in 2004.

But environmentalists — including officials of the provincial forest department — are sceptical of the figures produced by the GIS survey, with some even critical of the PFI’s Land Cover Atlas-2011. Officials in the forest department reason that information about forest-covered land in Fata is not accurate because on-ground data was not collected in the troubled region due to security reasons. “Technically, there is a difference between land cover and forest-covered areas, as both are different issues,” said Chief Conservator, Khan.

On their part, claimed officials in the Forest Management Centre (FMC), the forest department carries out biannual plantation drives, conducted through different government departments, armed forces, educational institutions, farmers and NGOs, to plant approximately 14 to 15 million saplings every year.

But even FMC officials acknowledge that 35pc of the plants do not survive due to varied reasons, including the drought-like situation, extensive grazing, unfit soil and scarcity of water. “Uncontrolled grazing in hilly and plain areas of the province pose a potential treat to small and young plants,” said an official in the FMC.

The KP forest department has outlined a plan to enhance forest-covered area from 20pc to 25pc by the year 2025 through mega forest resource development projects. The provincial government has allocated Rs570million in the current financial year for this purpose, but foreign donors have stopped funds for forestry because of the law and order situation in the region.

Despite all the glitches in the way of developing forests, local communities are becoming more and more tree-friendly knowing well the economic and other benefits associated with the forests, an official said. The official further said that 2.359 million saplings were planted by farmers during the last spring which indicates a positive trend.

“Massive forestation in KP is vital for the entire country, both economically and ecologically,” remarked a KP forest department official. “Of more immediate consequences are local communities. How can we expect people from the mountainous communities, who depend economically on forests for their livelihoods, to survive if we don’t have a plan for them?”