Fighting Deforestation In Swat Pakistan Through Realigning Property Rights, Education And Community Participation

Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan, with diverse biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics. The region is endowed with many fragile and fragmented ecosystems but land use and land cover changes have accelerated processes with irreversible effects on ecosystems. This paper aims to provide evidences of deforestation in the context of very disparate accounts on the state of forest resources in Pakistan, and suggests realigning property rights, education and community participation. The temporal analysis of forest cover between 1968 and 2007 showed a drastic change in forest cover. In lowlands forest cover decreased by 36 % and in high elevations by 69%. Annual deforestation rates observed were 1.86% (scrub forest zone), 1.28% (agro-forest zone) and 0.80% (pine forest zone) in the respective areas of district Swat. This change in forest cover leads to destruction of ecosystems and associated livelihoods. Results of household surveys and expert interviews showed that due to lack of education / environmental awareness, and lack of alternative income sources in district Swat have been mainly linked with the health and status of the overall forest ecosystems. Another important problem is the ambiguity in ownership of forest as well as rangelands and weak enforcement of statutory rules in the district. A multi-sectoral approach is required which needs to work alternative income sources and enhancing agricultural productivity based on the conservation of traditional crop diversity and value addition to agric-products, education and environmental awareness, efficient and effective implementation of the state rules/laws governing the forest use and protection and to solve the property rights issues in the region.