Reduced impact logging and sustainable forestry management in Pakistan
Reduced impact logging and sustainable forestry management in Pakistan
Mohammad Ayaz and Bashir Ahmad Wani
ABSTRACT
Intro:
Forests in Pakistan cover 4.227 million ha, making only 4.8% of total land area of 87.98 million ha (Ashfaque et al., 2000). However, forest percentage in different provinces/territories is different. The Azad State of Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) has the maximum forest area of 20.7%, followed by North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Northern Areas (NA) having 16.6 and 9.5% of forest area, respectively. The province of Punjab and Sindh have almost similar forest area of round 2.8%. Forest area in Balochistan is the least, representing a minimum figure of 1.7% only.
About 32% of the existing forests are managed for production to supply timber and fuelwood and the rest 68% are meant for protection to fragile mountain ecosystems. In 1995-96, the state controlled forests supplied 0.250 million m3 of timber (7.3%), import of wood and wood products was 1.494 million m3 (43.9%), costing about Rs.6,660 million (Ashfaque et al., 2000). The major contributors in the national wood supply were farmlands, making up the balance of 1.663 million m3 (48.8%).
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