PESHAWAR, Dec 27: The Asian Development Bank and the Dutch government have approved extension in the NWFP Forestry Sector Project, which was likely to be wound up by Dec 31, official sources said.

The federal and provincial governments had requested the ADB and the Royal Dutch government to extend the project for two years to achieve the goals set for the sector, sources in the NWFP forest department told Dawn here on Friday.

Following the government request the ADB’s review mission, which held meetings with the officials concerned in November last, agreed to extend the project for one year whereas the Dutch government gave extension for a period of two years.

The multi-million five-year project, started in 1995, got delayed for some unknown reasons and the government requested the donors to grant extension.

“The ADB has agreed in principle to extend the ongoing project till 2004,” an official of the forest department told Dawn.

The Frontier government with the financial and technical assistance of the donor agencies had launched the Forestry Sector Project in northern, central and southern parts of the province.

The ADB and the Dutch government had made a grant of Rs1,610 million for the project.

Under the project, the forest department had launched a number of schemes, including joint forest management programme, community infrastructure, plantation, community awareness and capacity-building of the technical staff of the forest department.

In addition, the NWFP government needs about Rs20 billion to launch “NWFP, Forest Vision-2025” plan to enhance forest resources.

The blueprint of the Forest Vision-2025 is ready and will be presented before the donor agencies.

At present, according to official report, the province’s total forest-covered area is 1,194,375 hectare.

Under the proposed plan, the forest-covered area would be increased from 17 per cent to 25 per cent by the end of 2025.