Legal & Institutional Reforms in Forest Laws for accepting Forest Carbon as Commodity

Dr Abbas Sadri, Director, Regional Office, ISESCO, Tehran spoke at seminar on “Legal & Institutional Reforms in Forest Laws for accepting Forest Carbon as Commodity” organized by SDPI here on Tuesday. Dr. Abid Q. Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI conducted the proceedings. Dr. Mahmood Khwaja chaired the session.

Dr Abid gave the welcome address, he said that there needs to be a comprehensive definition of what comes into the category of forests, and that how to balance livelihood of dependent people with deforestation. He also said that there needs to be a mechanism for REDD. He appreciated the cooperative attitude of the former minister of Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi. Reflecting on post flood scenario, he said that there is no estimate of destroyed forests in those areas and there has been no census since 2004 to have an assessment for the natural disaster’s impact. He stressed on community ownership of the issue of deforestation and Ministry of Environment should nominate a focal body that could take charge of dealing with the concerns and create awareness for technical issues. He said that there needs to be legal and institutional reforms, public/private partnership should be fostered in this regard and there needs to be a dismantlement of Development Sector Mafia and more focus on corporate social responsibility.

Director Corporate Strategy, Tourism Promotion Services (TPS) Mr. Moin Uddin, gave an overview of their organization and said that it is a subsidiary company of Agha Khan Foundation and Serena Hotels operate under their banner. He gave figures regarding their properties and activities. He further defined key areas such as their management values and corporate governance, and elaborated on their CSR strategy which primarily focuses on Environment, Culture, Governance and social sectors with their key stakeholders being guests, employees, suppliers and local communities. He further explained their vision in the words of His Highness Agha Khan that ‘Civil Society institutions play an essential role in the provision of social services, the protection of the marginalized, and the delivery of development programmes.’ In the end he elaborated on their services to the community and identified the beneficiaries of their projects.

Dr. Ejaz Ahmed of WWF-P on behalf of Ali Hasan Habib, Director General, WWF-P said that controlling deforestation is among one of the Millennium Development Goals, he also elaborated on the fact that when we talk about REDD there needs be a clarity in the definition of forest. He further said that there are challenges especially on the federal and provincial level to address these issues and we have all sorts of policies available name it forest policy, climate policy; environment policy but we need an analysis and implementation of those recommendations. He said that there needs to a survey of which forests can be sold as commodity and conserved later as well. He said community ownership should be initiated with the identification of institutions and organizations that would provide help after engaging people and to utilize their support. He said that the up-steep communities are more in loss due to the floods because of soil erosion from their areas and there needs to be a replacement for their sustained livelihood and identification of beneficiaries so there needs to be a sharing mechanism and there needs to be a win-win situation. He said that there needs to be some carbon accord to ensure distribution just like we have a water accord in Pakistan . He recommended that REDD mechanism needs to be developed, there needs to be resource generation and how public/private partnership can be advanced.

Former Chief Conservator Forests, KPK, Mr. Iqbal Swati, said that over the last 2 decades of the 20th century, rapid deforestation has taken its toll - some 15 million hectares of forests are lost annually, largely in the tropics. According to him, the highest current estimate of the world's remaining forested areas is about 3.6 billion hectares from an originally forested area of more than 6.0 billion hectares. He stressed that forest decline threatens the genetic diversity of the world's plants and animals and the World Conservation Union recently calculated that about 12.5% of the world's 270,000 species of plants, and about 75% of the world's mammals are threatened by forest decline. He elaborated on the existing laws of Pakistan and suggested amendments with regard to decentralization of forest management and induction of specialists, supportive units at different levels of administration. He further suggested going for a Multi stakeholder partnership and the need of a Capacity building program of stake holders. He stressed on land tenure that would give empowerment and accountability to the people. He pointed out that introduction for carbon sequestration should be given at all planning levels as there is provision of community forestry, JFM explore possibility for REDD.

Former Chief Conservator Wildlife, KPK, Dr. Muhammad Mumtaz Malik said that there needs to be a mechanism for implementation of REDD and the role of forests and there should be harvesting forests for state and planting new forests for conservation. He said that the foresters have technical know-how and know how to grow trees and manage forests; they should be given share in revenues. He said that there is no problem for community participation, and from the carbon financing 80% went to the community whose livelihood revolves around forest harvesting. He said that declaring National Parks has had a negative impact on conservation of forests. He suggested that we should use less wood and use aluminum or other material for building houses so forests can be conserved.

IG Forests, Syed Mahmood Nasir, MoE said that there was no concept of deforestation some 200 years ago and referred to the movement that started a century ago to conserve forests and stop the degradation. He pointed out that climate change has been largely due to cutting of forests and many areas in the world have been affected by it until now. He suggested that advanced technical methods should be used like tree measurement through satellite and other such technology is readily accessible for the need of conservationist and it should be brought into use.

Director, Regional Office, ISESCO Dr. Abbas Sadri, , Tehran gave the ending note and appreciated the panelists and their proper knowledge of the issue, he termed it as a ‘unique event’ among all other events ISESCO has conducted in Asia, as the panelist had command over what they spoke about and were relevant for the seminar. Further reflecting on his experiences he said that preservation and conservation of environment is really important and that PNC for UNESCO and ISESCO is the focal point. He thanked the various organizers and said that REDD can play a significant role on mitigation and adaptation of Sustainable Forest Management. He said that carbon is the greatest contributor to global climate change affecting various eco-systems on all levels. He said that we have to be responsible for ourselves, each one of us and that is how we can bring the change. Further elaborating on the role of ISESCO, he said that it is an institution setup for Islamic community and its policies also address climate change development projects addressing forest management issues in Pakistan, furthermore Its role is to encourage research and promote scientific and public decision making, develop a lot of alternatives, philosophy and policy directives choosing among several alternatives, capacity building and exchange of knowledge.