Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) organized a consultative workshop on ‘State of forest in the aftermath of forest reforms and flood 2010, way forward to sustainable forest management" at Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar today. The workshop was part of workshop series under the Partners Action Mitigation Syndrome (PAMS) project funded by National Center of Competent Research (NCCR).
More than forty participants attended the workshop and the representation was across the board as all the stakeholders including government representatives, legislators, researchers, practitioners, environmentalists, civil society, lawyers and forest communities took part in the proceedings. The Provincial Minister and Deputy Secretary of Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa represented the ministry of Environment and Forest.
The broader issues aroused during the deliberation were: governance issues like poor implementation of rules, perception and communication gapes and mistrust among the stakeholders.
The minister disagreed with the impression that the flood 2010 had the outcome of deforestation. According to him, other factors were also responsible for the environmental disasters, particularly global warming which is the result of industrialization in developed countries. He further said the onus of deforestation couldn’t be placed squarely on the shoulders of Forest department because many actors even the forest communities, due to absence of alternate livelihood options, are involved in the illegal cutting. However, the Minister admitted the poor implementation of rules, a fact that needs has to be changed in the national attitude was also responsible.
The ministry officials also disagreed with researchers on the five percent rate of deforestation and complained that the researchers do not count agro and farm forestry in the forest cover. However, all the stakeholders were on the same page regarding the need of sustainable and participatory forest management.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
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