- By : Irfan Khan
Forests, generally envisioned as forever friends, possess immense contributions to economic development and environmental resilience of any country, improving natural beauty, revamping climate standard and significantly mitigating the gases averse to prosperous survival.
Undeniably, spacious forest cover keeps environments clean and tidy as well as enriches oxygen and biodiversity. Improving the latter is crucial towards making an easy access to food, mushrooming soil’s fertility with increasing the water retaining ability and alleviating dryness of rangelands. Besides gleaning these benefits, to maintain an hygienic and a healthy environment, undertaking brisk and well thought strategies pertaining to forests development comes up imperative.
Apart from it, amongst the greatest advantages that forests furnish, conserving biodiversity and extending shelters for species manifest top of all.
Not only provide assistance they in in the conservation of local birds, but indeed comply key role in the preservation of axonic ones. Thus, there emanates no deniability in fact, forests assist in generating more economic outcome, fulfilling the food requirements of many and thus an indicative towards depleting poverty.
Not surprisingly, great likelihood comes to light regarding the occurrences of natural disasters mount with the increase in the rate of toppling down trees, which is surely on its peak in Pakistan, ie, deforestation. According to Climate Specialists, 20% to 25%(percent) area of any country should be under forest cover, essential to shape a healthy environment,devoid and less in natural calamities. Undoubtedly, and commonly areas which lack the adequate strength of trees, greatly get deteriorated with the flash floods melting out great cataclysm to infrastructure and people’s settlements, these are common here.
Badly ballses up the unplanned removal of trees biodiversity, ranging from the extinction of considerable species, jeopardizing animals to the havoc of eco-system. A little surge in deforestation devises, all of a sudden, a monstrous decrease in the rate of Oxygen by amplifying carbon dioxide whose increase accentuates disadvantageous, shores up greenhouse gases including nitric oxide, sulphur dioxide, etc and stimulates water’s paucity in soil. As a first proactive measure towards mollifying environment concerned flaws and safeguarding the life of massive number of species, discouraging and suffocating deforestation by hook and by crook with ensuring draconian policies, is sublimely inevitable.
Moreover, it is unfortunate, to know, Pakistan’s meagre forest cover is dwindling incrementally on the account of land changes and unsystematic policies, aiming to boost agriculture to elevate more financial growth. Statistics reveal, country loses 27000 hectares ( 60000acres) forest cover per year due to rampant surge in deforestation. The latter props up the risks of landslides in mountainous regions and off and on inflict colossal damages. This too looms the primary incentive behind increase in pollution menace, whether water or air related. Although Pakistan rich in biodiversity encounters incessantly significant obstacles in the conservation of its natural resources, biodiversity one of them, triggered out by rapid growth in population, urbanisation, poverty in rural areas, overgrazing of animals and illicit hunting methods. Consequently, climate conditions demonstrate unsatisfactory, fostering awareness and urging upon long term policies are indispensable in order to clamp down the uncontrolled harms
lecited by natural calamities and keep people’s life in immune.
No doubt, without protecting green shields, scorching heatwaves, disturbances in food system and specifically global warming would come up with unfavourable outcomes. To decrease these bashing damages, encouraging and empowering local communities is essential to enable them to preserve forests. In addition, fostering awareness to install more and more trees and abstaining forests’ cutting seems venerable. Just extending and conducting discussions with foreign bodies to work for climate resilience devises no appeasing outputs without firstly intercepting and damning deforestation inside the country. Tough, the need is to undertake and prefer well comprehensive strategies to boost agriculture without rendering chemical injuries to trees.
Here in the country, to head off and combat the biodiversity’s problems and enhance the vigorous growth of forests, what firstly emerges imperative and compulsory is to, in the nick of time , underscore the factors, including increment growth in population, illiteracy, ingrained poverty in rural areas that obliges and reverts masses to the cutting of tress and use them as fuel, unplanned urbanisation and illegal hunting, leading to the destruction of biodiversity. In the same way, formulating family structure will ultimately engender little bit change, but after long period great palpable changes in massive population rate would come up. With concerted and collective efforts with local authorities, deforestation should be resisted to make it limited.
Likewise, Government has a pivotal role to play, to encourage local communities by allocating sufficient resources for revamping and excelling local forests. Bolstering and supporting the transitions, such as WWL(World Wildlife) Pakistan and IUCN(International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural resources) working in collaboration with non governmental organisations is requisite.
Let us all work for an hygienic and a healthy environment, enrich in green shields (forests). All must we excoriate the cutting down of trees, as our fundamental liability. Thus, without carrying out these aforementioned elaborated measures, great cataclysm will come to front with contingent rise in natural disasters. It is our mutual duty to develop and strengthen cordial connections with forever friends(trees).
- The writer is contributing columnist, and can be reached at: irfankhantareen10@gmail.com