ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: Pakistan imported wood and wood products worth Rs8,499.3 million during 1999-2000 due to the high rates of deforestation, a Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) study revealed.

Similarly, the country’s total exports of wood and wood products stood at mere Rs381.4 million.

The study said forests in Pakistan were not enough to meet the country’s demand of wood and wood related products. In 1998, the wood consumption in Pakistan was 33,018,000 cubic metres and total wood produced was only 350,000 cubic metres.

Pakistan has faced significantly high rates of deforestation in the past. According to one estimate, the forest area of Pakistan decreased from 141,530 square km in 1880 to 67,310 in 1980, a decrease of 52 per cent in 100 years.

During the 1970s, the study estimates an annual decrease of 1.5 per cent per year. Estimates of contemporary deforestation are varied. Pakistan in 1990s is reported to have lost some 7,000- 9,000 hectare of forests each year.

The FAO (1998) provides the most recent estimate of annual deforestation. It reported that between 1990 and 1995, Pakistan experienced deforestation at the rate of 1.1 per cent (55,000 hectare) annually.

This presents a rather grim picture for the future prospects of the sector. In fact, doubts have been raised that if nothing is done to check this process the remaining forests will soon disappear, the report said.

Pakistan has 4.2 million hectare covered by forests, which is equivalent to 4.8 per cent of the total land area. Most of these forests are found in the northern part of the country (40 per cent in the NWFP, 15.7 per cent in the Northern Areas, and 6.5 per cent in the AJK).

The total forest cover (4.8 percent) is low when compared with other parts of the world, 27 per cent for the developed countries and 26 per cent for the developing countries. Per capita forest cover presents a gloomier picture.

Pakistan has only 0.03 hectare of forest per capita, while corresponding figures for the developed and the developing countries are 1.07 and 0.50 respectively.