ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Ineffective forest management strategies and bad governance are mainly responsible for forest degradation in Pakistan, particularly in NWFP and Baluchistan.

This was the crux of speeches delivered on the first day of the ninth sustainable development conference on “Missing Links in Sustainable Development: South Asian Perspectives” organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Wednesday.

Speaking on the topic “Myths and realities of deforestation in Northwest Pakistan: implications for sustainable forest management, in the first session, the speakers said timber mafia was more powerful than the forest department in NWFP and Baluchistan.

Babar Shahbaz from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, said that local people did not cut trees for economic purposes, as they mostly used the forest resources for fuelwood, timber, fodder and medicinal purposes.

“There is need to streamline forestry extension services in these area by further strengthening the existing community-based and non-government organizations so as to involve the local people in the reforestation activities,” he stressed. Dr. Urs Geiser from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, said that there was need to address the issue of forest degradation at local level. Forest policies are largely donor- driven and idealistic hence these fail during their implementation phase, he said.

Dr. Abid Sulehri of SDPI said that local people were perceived as enemies of forests by the authorities and stressed the need for bridging the gap between the forest department and the local communities.

Earlier at the inauguration of the conference, Chairman Higher Education Commission Dr. Attaur Rahman said research knew no ethnic or geographic boundaries and joined all in the common pursuit of truth.

Speaking on “Interrogating Peace: Perspectives from the Margins” in the second session, renowned Indian publisher Urvashi Battalia stressed the need for a more inclusive process of peace negotiations and conflict resolution that brought both men, women and minorities to the table.