May 12, 2005

One of the oldest friends of mankind, the tree shares a very intimate relationship with the human race which has developed over hundreds of thousands of years.

A source of life, spiritual sustenance, and more than a thing of beauty and wonderment, trees have played a major role in shaping the ecology of the planet and in determining the present arrangements of life on earth. Not only do they play a key role in every living transaction that takes place on our planet, their contribution has been tremendous in the development of human cultures and communities.

Brian Clifford in Trees, Wood and People writes, “Trees have been of continuing spiritual benefit to the human race; they are beautiful organisms carrying a great weight of symbolism. We have seen, too, that we owe our very existence to trees. But our debt to trees goes much farther than this. The development of human cultures and civilization has been dependent on wood-based technologies.

“Let us think for a moment about some of the important discoveries or techniques that have been crucial to the development of modern society. Where would we be without fire, agriculture, the wheel, the use of metals, sources of power, spinning and weaving, building, printing and music?”

Then, he goes on to prove that it was wood which formed a major part of the development in every aspect of life. Apart from its use in cooking and protection from the cold, solid planks were used to make the first crude wheels.

Earliest sources of power, i.e, wind and water mills were largely constructed with wood, which was also extensively used in the development of transport, musical instruments, art and culture, as well as building material for housing and other structures and in mechanisms of all kinds from clocks to mill machinery. Books have been dependent on of paper made from wood pulp. Even the first aircraft was made of wood.

Notwithstanding this enormous contribution to life, this very old friend of mankind today is in trouble as the removal of trees for the sake of agriculture, mining operations, infrastructure creation, maintenance, expansion of urban centres and cities and other consequences of a rapidly growing human population have significantly shrunk the world’s forests over the last several thousand years.

It is estimated that the planet’s original forest cover may have been reduced from the time of the earliest civilizations to the present, by nearly 50 per cent. More importantly, the rate of deforestation appears to be accelerating. During the 1990s, the average area of tropical forest cleared each year was equivalent to half of the area of England.

According to World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems, The Fraying Web of Life, some 30 per cent of the world’s original forests have been converted to agricultural land and tropical deforestation may exceed 130,000 square kilometres per year. More than 15 per cent of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested, most of it in the last 50 years.

It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground. But they never seem so to me. I have never seen a discontent tree. They grip the ground as though they like it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, travelling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far.

The IUCN Species Survival Commission has identified 800 tree species which are threatened with extinction at a global level. Experts suggest that if action is not taken soon to stay the chain saw, trees may well become the dinosaurs of our era.

The question which we should be asking ourselves is that do we really need trees? Can we live without them?

The answer is an emphatic no. The earth has entered the Antheropocene Era in which humans are a dominating environmental force. Our planet is changing and many environmental indicators have moved outside their range in the past half million years.

The human impact on natural ecosystems has reached dangerous levels, even significantly altering the earth’s basic chemical cycles. Global warming is currently taking place and there is a real danger that in the not very distant future man will destroy a large proportion of the present species on earth, create an uninhabitable environment and then die out himself.

If we don’t want our great grand-children to curse us for a legacy of droughts, plagues and storms, we have to act now. And one of the natural solutions to this complicated environmental problem is that we plant more and more trees and conserve the remaining ones. This is because trees fight greenhouse emissions, pollution and reduce desertification, droughts, floods and storms. In regions like Sumatra, and other places with long mangrove belts, the damage by Tsunami was minimum.

Trees are critical

Let’s face it. Most human activities — from breathing to burning fossil fuels — cause air pollution. And, while we may not want Big Brother watching over us, it’s a good thing Mother Nature is. It’s as if she knew we’d need saving ourselves from our own actions and thus created trees to produce oxygen and reduce the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide made by everyday living.

A healthy tree stores about 13 pounds of carbon annually or 2.6 tons per acre per year. Trees along the streets and in city parks help prevent erosion and filter pollutants from storm water runoff, making smaller pipes sufficient. They fight air pollution, keep water clean and reduce air conditioning needs up to 30 per cent, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuel burned to produce electircity. Public trees are a low cost investment that provides high returns.

New trees can absorb more pollutants from air and prevent soil erosion and flooding. Tree leaves calm the wind, reduce noise pollution, shade us, moderate our climate, improve the look of our communities and conserve water. Chemists are continually deriving new medicines from species which hitherto have been unexploited.

Where do we stand?

Pakistan’s total forested area stands at 2.3 million hectares, a mere 3.1 per cent of the total land area. Experts have rated Pakistan as very low in forest cover, and ironically, that too, is vanishing at an alarming rate. The IUCN maintains that if the situation is not checked forests will disappear in 20 to 25 years.

Trees are being cut ruthlessly all over the country. Landlords have occupied and converted large forest areas into agricultural land. Forests are at the mercy of the axe and people including policemen and officials of the forest department stand accused of patronizing the timber mafia.

Timber smuggling has become a lucrative business in the entire NWFP, which has the most forest cover of the country. According to news reports, the forests of Eelum, Gukand, Jambel and Kokarai have almost vanished.

Precious deodar wood worth more than Rs1 billion was smuggled from the forests of Kohistan district to Punjab in the past few months. Massive illegal cutting of shisham trees on Topi-Miani Road in Swabi took place earlier this year while the large scale slaughter of forests in Swat, Dir, Hazara, Khanpur, Murree Hills and other areas continues.

And the real tragedy is that the mafia is armed with permits issued by the government, and the sole consideration for this privilege is petty politics and favouritism.

During a major illegal tree-felling operation in NWFP by the timber mafia in 1988, the government instead of seizing the wood and penalizing the illegal loggers, allowed the timber mafia to export the wood to other provinces. The mafia got away with 400,000 cubic feet of forest wood. Between 1989 and 1992 an additional million cubic feet were illegally logged.

In 1947, cedar, maple, ash, pine, fir, oak, spruce and walnut trees covered at least 42 per cent of Azad Kashmir. The timber mafia has cut the forests down and less than 11 per cent of Kashmir remains forested even though there is a complete ban on the cutting of green trees by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir cabinet.

World’s oldest juniper trees

Pakistan is home to 3,000 to 5,000 years old juniper trees. Although, a portion of the forest in Ziarat is known to tourists and scientists, a larger segment of the juniper forest in Zargoon remained hidden till the scientific committee of WWF-Pakistan held its meeting in Zargoon in 1996, and asked its conservation division to explore the area further.

Studies undertaken thereafter revealed that Zargoon is richer in plant diversity and in wildlife species than any area found anywhere in the juniper ecosystem. The trees are under tremendous pressure of deforestation as local people use them for energy requirements.

The drought in 2000 caused irreparable damage to these living legends. Environmentalists fear the cutting could result in the extinction of junipers because they cannot grow back fast enough. And, their absence could have a serious impact on farming. The trees currently divert rainwater into the ground, replenishing underground water supplies, which in turn, irrigate soil.

“These trees are also facing natural degeneration due to lack of rain. There is no other source of water and the rocky area make the natural process of germination extremely difficult. We tried to grow junipers in a nursey in Peshawar, but for some reasons the plan could not succeed. It would be very unfortunate on our part if no action is taken to save this ecological and cultural treasure of the country,” says Director General Forest Institute of Peshwar, Dr Sardar Mohammad Rafique. n — F.I.

In Badin cutting of trees has resulted in the rapid vanishing of forests along the coastal area of the district. The once lush-green coastline of southern Sindh, covered with mangrove forests, is now barren and polluted because the discharge of fresh water from the Indus river has virtually stopped after the construction of dams and barrages upstream.

Pakistan’s scenario is bleak because no real understanding exists at any government level about the huge contribution trees render to life. One frequently comes across news related to felling of trees to widen roads or to build commercial projects.

In Lahore thousands of trees, some of them 100 years old, were destroyed for under passes. In Rawalpindi, in order to widen an already dual-carriage road with six lanes, beautiful gardens and parks were cut down.

“One does not say that there shouldn’t be any construction at all. The project plan should be planned in such a way that minimum damage is caused to the environment. People generally don’t know that when old trees are cut the whole mini ecosystem is destroyed.

“In the Punjab, the once flourishing riverain forests have almost vanished and the indicators are not encouraging in other parts of the country either. It would probably take us many years to estimate the destruction in quantitative terms caused by the eradication of forests, trees and loss of bio-diversity,” says WWF official Shehzad Ashraf, who is based in Lahore.

‘Only 100 trees cut’

“Not more than 100 eucalyptus trees were cut in the city and that too only in North Nazimabad Town. I am not aware if any other town has cut down a large number of trees. The media had played up this matter and printed one-sided stories. If some trees were cut, the town administration concerned had also planted trees in their jurisdiction,” said Karachi’s Nazim Naimatullah Khan, when asked about the large-scale destruction of eucalyptus trees in the last four years.

When the same question was put before DO Parks City Government Karachi, Liaquat Ali Khan, he said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to the city.

Former DCO Mir Hussain, wrote many letters to the town and union council administrations which were felling the trees, but they continued with the destruction. That happened despite the promulgation of an ordinance under which anyone cutting a tree could be fined Rs15,000, including nazims. He added that towns were independent entities and were not directly under the control of the city government.

“The ideal situation would be that there is one tree for one individual, thus there should be 14 million trees in the city. However, according to an old survey, there are only two million trees in the metropolis and their number must have further reduced after this destruction.

Hussain continued, “Eucalyptus, like all other trees goes after moisture and reduces water table and salinity. The trees grown on traffic islands and near footpaths are not a threat to sewerage lines or building infrastructure. The way out is to lay down pipes properly so they do not leak instead of cutting the trees down. Secondly, if they want to remove them, they should plant new trees first and then remove the old ones. These people don’t know about the critical role trees play in environment. They are excellent pollutant filters.”

Hussain said that 2,000 date palms and 15,000 coconut trees transported from the interior of Sindh had been planted along major roads and roundabouts in the city.

The world’s forests

The total area covered by forests worldwide is approximately 3,869 million hectares, almost one-third of the world’s land area, of which 95 per cent is natural forest and five per cent planted forest; 17 per cent is in Africa, 14 per cent in Asia, 27 per cent in Europe, 14 per cent in North and Central America and 23 per cent in South America and five per cent in Oceania.

According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), two-thirds of the world’s forests are located in 10 countries alone: the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States, China, Australia, Congo, Indonesia, Angola and Peru.

About half the land area of South America and Europe is covered by forest, but only one-sixth of Asia is forested. The world’s natural forests continued to be converted to other uses at a very high rate during the 1990s, although it slowed down in comparison to earlier decades. An estimated 16.1 million hectares of natural forest worldwide was lost annually during the 1990s through deforestation and conversion to forest plantations.

By virtue of their importance as habitats, forests and especially tropical forests figure prominently in efforts to conserve biological diversity. According to the UNEP Global Biodiversity Outlook, about 60 per cent, and possibly closer to 90 per cent, of all species are found in tropical forests. These forests have been steadily eroded since prehistoric times and have declined to less than half of their original size.

The destruction of the tropical forests is not only short sighted in measurable economic terms but is leading to a potentially devastating erosion of the general environment.

IUCN warns that 24 per cent of mammal species and 12 per cent of bird species face a ‘high risk of extinction in the near future’. Habitat degradation is one of the biggest causes for this loss of biodiversity.

A 1997 study in the journal Nature estimated the global value of the goods and services that forest ecosystems provide from timber to climate regulation to water supply to recreation was $4.7 trillion a year, or more than a quarter of that year’s world GDP of $18trillion.

Wonder and mystery of trees

In his article, Trees, Wood and People, Brian Clifford provides an elaborate account on the wonder and mystery of trees. Which is that they have an important place in religion, myth, folklore, superstition and story telling; as a consequence the tree has been a powerful cultural symbol in many societies from primitive times to the present day.

Many trees have been worshiped as gods or seen as the dwelling place of spirits. Groves of trees have become sacred places. Such trees, or woods, have also become the places where tribal rituals or ceremonies are carried out. Objects made from wood such as icons, images, masks, amulets and lucky charms have also incorporated this magical status. The common saying ‘touch wood’ to save the tempting of fate, probably has its origins in these associations.

Rape of the lock

Beautiful cities are often likened to brides, and if trimming a bride’s locks is a sin, as Chaucer would tell you, plucking trees out one by one is a crime. This is precisely what has been happening with the beautification drive undertaken by successive city managers of Lahore. Besides, the civic agencies’ obsession with widening the roads has also meant the felling of thousands of trees in recent years.

The madness started a decade ago when gigantic, 100-year-old peepal trees in front of the Faletti’s Hotel, a colonial-time landmark, were cut down. The argument 10 years ago was that the historical structure’s facade was being obscured by the shady tree cover. Now, the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, the owner of the coveted property, has auctioned off the hotel which will be replaced by a commercial plaza.

Much of Lahore’s on-going development is surrounded by confusion created by the myriad agencies involved. The stakeholders include the city district government, the Punjab government, the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (Tepa), the LDA, the Frontier Works Organization (FWO), Nespak, the Parks and Horticulture Authority (P&HA), the DHA and the two cantonment boards.

The two ingredients directing development, which all agencies concerned seem to agree on, are the city’s ‘beautification’ and the widening of its roads. Both obsessions have combined to deprive Lahore of natural and planted tree cover. The areas most affected are parts of the old cantonment (though to a lesser extent), the canal bank roads, Gulberg and Model Town. New trees that should have been planted in recently developed big housing societies, which span thousands of acres include, the DHA, Jauhar Town, Wapda Town and their tertiary colonies.

Sources in Tepa, Nespak and the LDA confide that new road projects and land development are a constant tug of war among many civic agencies and those who preside over them. The P&HA, technically in charge of maintaining parks, greenbelts and open spaces in city limits, is also erratic in extending its patronage.

As for the ‘beautification’ part, there was a time when under Ayub Khan’s directives poplar and ‘weeping willows’ were imported from Italy and planted along the canal. Little did the people involved know that Italy’s relatively short and beautiful poplars would grow up to be a monster in Lahore climate. The trees overshot their expected height and girth, and have now begun to outlive their lifespan. Nothing new is being planted in their lieu.

Then came General Zia and there was this fascination with planting eucalyptus trees by the thousands, only to learn later that it caused more damage than good. Now, for the last 20 years or so the fascination has shifted to alstonia, a native of tropical climes.

All this leads one to wonder as to why we cannot live with the native species, the peepal, the keerar, the neem, the banyan, etc. One also wonders when the civic authorities will learn the way to improve roads without felling trees and causing other environmental damage. n —M.R.

The system of the tree may also provide a structure for a wider system of belief. The legendary ash tree of Scandinavia, Yggdrasil, forms the basis of Norse mythology. According to it, its branches reach into the heavens — the home of the gods, and its roots go down to the underworld. The trunk passes through middle earth, linking the three realms and forming the bridge along which the gods can pass. In this way the tree can be seen as the greatest symbol of all: a representation of the whole cosmos.

Trees are among the largest and longest living organisms on earth. Numerous species of trees live 500 years or more, some live even longer. There are bristlecone pines growing today on the mountains of California and Nevada that are confirmed to be 4,300 years old. Some yew trees in England, may have been living even longer than that, possibly 5,000 years.

The world’s largest trees

Twenty million years ago redwood forests spread across Europe, North America and Asia, but time and climactic changes have driven specific species of these majestic trees to small corners of two vast continents: the coast redwoods and giant sequoias cling to California at the edge of North America; and the ancient dawn redwoods in China, says Jeremy Hewes in his book Redwoods, The World's Largest Trees.

Though their numbers have severely diminished, redwoods remain the earth’s largest and the world’s tallest living things. These are trees equal to their history. A single giant sequoia may live more than 3,500 years, reach a height of 300 feet, and weigh over 6,000 tons. The most massive trees on earth, both in circumference and volume, are the Sequoiadendron giganteum.

These are the giant sequoias, often called the Big Tree or Sierra redwood of the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The largest specimen of this sequoia, known as the General Sherman Tree, measures 101.6 feet in circumference at its base and weighs an estimated 12 million pounds; its height is a comparatively modest 272.4 feet.

If cut for lumber, this single tree would yield 600,120 board feet, the makings of 40 five-room houses. It is no longer used for timber, though, because its wood is too brittle for most commercial purposes.

The unique stature and age of California’s existing redwoods up to 3,500 years for giant sequoia, up to 2,200 years old for coast redwoods — have won the respect of foresters, the praise of poets and the fervent prayers of conservationists.

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