APART from ecological significance, hazelnut trees have the potential to contribute to the economic and social uplift of the people of the area where it is grown.

Hazelnut forest, found in Chitral, Chilas, Kohistan, and Suleiman range in Balochistan and Waziristan, has the potential to contribute to poverty alleviation of the local people by maximising their income from nuts through application of improved harvesting technology and marketing skills.

Hazelnut is a high-priced nut with few sellers. The reason for decrease in its production is the orthodox and unproductive means of harvesting. People harvest the nut in unsustainable form by cutting branches, thereby losing the unripe future cones.

To build the capacity of local people in improved harvesting and marketing of hazelnuts and increase their income, a project was initiated in 2004 in the Palas Valley of Kohistan district

The survey revealed that hazelnut nut is one of the most important non-timber forest products in the Palas Valley, and the most valuable nut in the country. The hazelnut pine (Pinus gerardiana) is one of the important economic plants, but its economic potential has not been realised at local level due to lack of awareness and inadequate harvesting and marketing skills. That was why it had contributed very little to the local economy.

In fact, due to traditional methods of collection of nuts, the financial outcome was poor to be accounted for the sustainable utilisation of hazelnut cones and economic and social uplift of local communities. In the last season, unripe nuts were sold at Rs350 per kg, and traders after treatment sold them at Rs1,000 per kg in Bannu.

A survey in 2004 in Kohistan district showed that 26,685kg of cones were collected which gave a total yield of 1,779kg nuts fetching an amount of Rs5,33,700, while in 2005, about 53,600 kg cones were collected that yielded 3,573 kg nuts and Rs14,34,200 was earned by the growers. This is very high as compared to the baseline of 2003, when the local community could only get Rs60,000 from sale of hazelnuts.

Given the poverty, low literacy rate and high dependency of local people on natural resources for subsistence and livelihood in the core zone of hazelnut pine, a long-term awareness and capacity building programme besides transfer of sound cost-effective technology is needed. This will pave the way for the socio-economic uplift of the local communities dependent on the income of hazelnuts.

Moreover, it would create opportunities of developing linkages with exporters that would also contribute to national GDP. Increased economic benefits from hazelnut forests could be used as a tool for the conservation and propagation of its forest to maintain the fragile ecosystem of the mountain region.