THE Punjab government has decided to launch a green Punjab programme through public-private joint venture to safeguard and promote forestry in the province. It is a welcome move for environmentalists and for sustainability of agriculture. The provincial government intend to plant 20 million trees on 100,000 acres in the coming three years.

To protect forests, penalty on tree theft has been increased five times of tree value or one year imprisonment. It means if the value of tree is Rs1,000, the penalty would be Rs5,000.

Under the Rs4.5 billion Green Punjab Programme, satellite monitoring would be introduced to protect forests. The objective of the programme is to bring 25 per cent area of the province under forests. New species of plants would be introduced with the cooperation of Spain and France. To add to this, plantation of teak tress would also be carried out.

In this context, it is essential to visualise different types, extent, importance, problems and management of various forests in the country.

Sustainability of agriculture is linked with forests since trees control soil erosion, regulate water supply, keep climate moderate, stabilise canal embankments and prolong the lives of dams and reservoirs.

Besides these benefits, forests are a valuable source of various products and by-products including timber, charcoal, firewood, pulp, tannin, lignin, cellulose and wax. Wood and timber constitute raw material for wood-related industries. Wood is also used in manufacturing of agricultural implements. Livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people is linked with such industries.

Our country is a land of great diversity but short of forests.Less than five per cent of its total area is under forests, which is very low as compared with other Asian countries. In India, Japan, Sri-Lanka, Philippines, Korea, Bhutan and Brunei, natural forest area ranges from 24.2 to 90.4 per cent of the total land mass.

Our total forest area is around four million hectares. Province-wise forest areas are about 0.51 million hectares, 1.33 million hectares, 0.84 million hectares and 1.36 million hectares in Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan, respectively. The state forests contribute only 14 per cent of timber and 10 per cent of fuel wood whereas farmland contributes 46 per cent of timber and 90 per cent of fuel wood requirements. Forest’s share in the gross domestic product (GDP) is extremely low compared to other sub-sectors of agriculture.

Various important forests include moist and dry temperate coniferous, scrub, tropical thorn, riverian, juniper, mangrove, irrigated and farm forests scattered from northern mountainous to southern delta regions. These forests differ with respect to occurrence, environmental conditions, composition, management and economic importance.

Moist temperate forests: These forests are located in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Murree, parts of districts of Abottabad, Swat, Mansehra, including some tribal areas of Malakand and Hazara.

Important timber vegetation comprises deodar, fir, partal and kail. These forests yield precious timber used for multiple purposes. Other type of vegetation includes oak, popular and horse chestnut as broad-leaved tress.

The management of these forests is carried out for the protection of Mangla and Tarbela watersheds and to regulate clean supply of water to rivers. Important problems are illegal and excessive cutting of trees.

Dry temperate forests: Dry temperate forests are found in the northern Areas of Diamir, Chitral and Dir, tribal areas of Waziristan and northern Balochistan of Loralai and Zhob.

Important trees found in these forests are Chilgoza, pine, pencil juniper and deodar. Pencil juniper is the most important quality timber that is used in making pencils. Excessive cutting by local people and poor germination ability of seeds are the problems confronting these forests.

The scrub forests: These forests are located in the Pothwar region, the foothills of Murree and the NWFP hills. Vegetation is open, bushy and branchy including Kahu and Phulai. The small timber obtained from Kahu and Phulai is used in manufacturing of handicrafts, handles of hand tools and rural cots. Trees protect the watersheds of Tarbela and Mangla dams. Excessive cutting of trees by local people has inflicted a lot of damage to these forests

Tropical thorn forests: These forests survive under drought-like conditions. Technically, trees are called Xerophytes like karir, sarkand, van, kikar, jand and farash. Deep and extensive roots, small and a few leaves, a few number of stomata on and under the leaves, short life-span, shedding of leaves during dry season and thick bark are the characteristics features that help the plant to survive under drought conditions. Though the forests offer lush green sites for grazing of livestock and protection of wildlife they are vanishing due to rapid industrialisation, urbanisation, and road construction and over cutting of trees.

Irrigated forests: Irrigated forests are most important. Primarily, the irrigated forests were managed for provision of wood for making coal but after discovery of coal, the objective changed to producing quality timber for making furniture and sports goods. But shortage of water for irrigation, slow growth species, loss of wood by pilferage, diseases, insects, pests and weeds are factors exercising adverse effects on the productivity of these forests. Farm forestry has got much attention of the forests due synergistic effects of trees on farm crops.

Riverian forests: These forests are located on both banks of the Indus—-eastern and western banks. These are rapidly vanishing in Sindh due to significant reduction in the annual discharge of Indus in the lower Indus region. These forests are called riverian forests and comprise vegetation like kikar, jand, farash and Bahn. The trees of Punjab riverian forests include shisham and mulberry which are also exposed to illegal cutting. Medium size timber wood obtained from the forests is used in furniture, building material and sports goods. These trees strengthen rivers and canal embankments.

Mangrove forests: Located on the Indus delta originally consisted of highly salt tolerant species such as Avicennia marina, Avicennia officinalis, ceriops tagal and Aegiceras corniculatum but large number of these species failed to survive due to changing of deltaic conditions over the years. Only Avicennia marina is the surviving species in the delta region.

These forests are good feeding, breeding and nursery grounds for prawns, shrimps, fish etc. Equally these are good habitat for snakes, birds and mammals. The trees have the importance of arresting erosion, storm damage and wave action by acting as buffers and catching alluvial materials.

Over exploitation, pollution and changes in water quality, excessive cutting for fuel wood and fodder, solid industrial and domestic wastes and oil spills have resulted in reduction of area under mangrove forests. Area of these forests has reduced from 263,000 hectare in 1978 to 158,500 hectare in 1990. There is a need of a comprehensive programme to educate local people about the value of mangroves to prevent cutting for fuel.

Management of these forests requires planting tree material containing characteristics like extensive root system, broad genetic base and ability of withstanding harsh climate, browsing, trampling and uprooting in the forests to ensure continuous supply of timber. To boost forest productivity, it is necessary to undertake certain cultural operations such as weeding, staking, pruning, thinning etc from time to time. Irrigation along with occasional fertilisation is crucial to get desired results. Lastly, removal of old trees and plantation of new sapling is pre-requisite to maintain healthy forest crop.