PESHAWAR, Sept 29: The extension of the NWFP Forest Ordinance, 2002, to provincially administered tribal areas (Pata) has evoked a mixed reaction from the people concerned.
The ordinance, enforced in June 2002, has recently been extended to Pata after a lapse of over two years.
"It (extension of the ordinance) involved time consuming procedures. As a result it took the provincial government two years to extend the new ordinance to Pata," said a senior officer of the environment department.
With its delayed extension to Pata, legal experts say, the government has rectified the situation as new cases of forest- related offences were now being registered under the law.
Representatives of community-based organizations (CBOs) and non- governmental organizations who are concentrating to protect the rights of the people living along the forests of Malakand region of the NWFP, categorized as 'protected forests', which involve harvesting for commercial purposes.
"It has yet to be seen whether the forest ordinance takes care of the age-old local practices or not," said Dr Imtiaz Alwi, executive director of the SUNGI Development Foundation.
Appreciating the extension of the forest ordinance to Pata, Mr Alwi said that the government should ensure that local practices, i.e., payment of royalty to the right holders (among the people living in the forest areas of Pata), should be continued for the benefit of the local communities.
"The new piece of law is silent on the royalty issue giving rise to suspicions about the economic interest of the people living in the protected forests," said Mr Alwi. However, his apprehensions about the absence of legal cover to payment of royalty were termed as 'unfounded' by the district forest officer, Malakand, Mr Bakht Zamin, who said that the ordinance had nothing to do with the payment of royalty.
Mr Zamin, when contacted, told Dawn that the mechanism for the payment of royalty was contained under the official notifications issued by the provincial government from time to time.
"Even the Forest Act, 1927, that has been replaced by the new piece of law, did not contain any thing on the payment of royalty but the right holders were being made payments in fulfilment of their right," said Mr Zamin.
Mr Alwi said that the Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad (Safi), a conglomerate of the community-based organziations developed in the forest rich areas of the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), had certain genuine reservations viz-a-viz extension of forest ordinance to Pata, which should be looked into.
Riaz Mohammed Khan, president of Safi, said that the right holders' demand for increase in their share of royalty, raising it to 80 per cent in areas where they were still being given 60 per cent, should be met.
People living in forest areas classified as 'protected forests' are entitled to be paid forest royalty - the net income raised through sale proceeds of wood/trees cut from the protected forests.
Mr Khan said that the share of forest communities of Dir in royalty, where it was being distributed among the local people and the government on 60:40 basis, should be increased to 80 per cent, bringing it in conformity with other parts of Pata.
"The issue would again be taken up with the provincial government through the provincial assembly's select committee on environment which is scheduled to meet on Wednesday at Peshawar," said Mr Khan.