PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad (Safi) also announced support to the stance of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan against timber mafia and said that the forest owners will extend full cooperation to the government to save forests and discourage all those bent upon harvesting trees illegally.

Safi president Riaz Mohammad and general secretary Jamshid Khan in a statement on Sunday asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to devise an effective plan for protection of the forests to save the environment.

They said that forests could not be safeguarded only through establishment of a force or use of bullets, but the government should take the forest owners into confidence to overcome the issues. “We want the government to give due weight to our opinion in making of the new forest policy so that it could be implemented and the targets achieved,” the Safi leaders said.

They also demanded inclusion of honest people into the joint forest management committees (JFMCs), saying that for time being it was ineffective body because none of the successive governments had ever paid proper attention to it.

The Safi leaders said that the forest department was least interested in taking the JFMCs office-bearers into confidence while taking important decisions and that was why the distrust among the forest owners and government was increasing.

“We have been forcing the timber mafia to avoid cutting of trees, but successive governments always usurped rights of the owners,” Amir Mohammad Khan said while talking to this correspondent. He also urged the MPAs, particularly those hailing from the forest areas, to play their role in protection of forests.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2015

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