Deforestation and Desrtification in Pakistan

Deforestation and Desertification in Pakistan

Issue:

Many South Asian countries including Pakistan suffer from severe land degradation. The severity of the land degradation is 2 percent of the region’s GDP and seven percent of the region’s agricultural output. There is a great deal of money being lost because of land degradation and the breakdown is as follows: 5.4 billion dollars to water erosion, 1.8 billion dollars wind erosion, 0.6-1.2 billion dollars fertility decline, 0.5 billion dollars water-logging, and 1.5 billion dollars salinity. 140 million hectares, which is equal to 43 percent of the region’s total agricultural land, suffer from at least one form of land degradation. Of that land, 31 million hectares were strongly degraded and 63 million hectares were moderately degraded. Of the South Asian countries Pakistan is the third worst affected with 61 percent of its land dealing with degradation.

In Pakistan, land degradation includes deforestation, desertification, salinity and sodicity, soil erosion, water-logging, depletion of soil fertility, and negative nutrient balances. Pakistan has a total forest area of 12 million hectares. The declining rate of Pakistan’s forest is an alarming one in fact it is the second highest in the world. 4-6 percent of Pakistan’s forests are disappearing every year which equals 7,000-9,000 hectares. At this rate Pakistan’s forests may be completely wiped out in 10-15 years.

Reason:

Because of the increase in population in Pakistan the consumption of household firewood has sky rocketed; especially in the North where the per-capita burning of firewood is 10 times higher because of the cold winters.

What is Being Done?

There is not much being done about this issue now because many people in Northern Pakistan are not educated about the issue. They need to cut down trees to survive and stay warm and they have no other alternative. The only way this issue will stop is if they somehow develop or obtain something that can heat their homes; however, Northern Pakistan is not a very rich area and obtaining that kind of money would be very hard. Pakistan is in a lot of trouble and needs help; they need to become educated on this topic before their forests completely disappear.