LAHORE, Dec 16: For the first time every tree will be counted in Punjab through satellite to stop deforestation.

Only 3.1 per cent area is estimated to be under tree cover throughout the province, however, the government has no statistics available with it about the number of trees. According to international standards, the area under tree cover should not be less than 25 per cent of the total area of the province.

Caretaker Punjab Forest Minister Pir Saad Ahsanuddin told Dawn the Forest Department was launching a project next month in collaboration with WWF-Pakistan to find the exact number of trees in the province. The counting would be done through the satellite. “This will help provide quality information on which a plan will be made to check deforestation and encroachment and enforce a system of accountability.”

The minister said a spring tree plantation campaign was being launched in February under which more than 17 million saplings would be planted in Punjab. Of these, 1.8 million saplings would be planted on the land under the control of departments other than the Forest Department. He said the Forest Department would provide saplings and technical guidance to those who would be part of this campaign.

Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Forest Department will have to increase the forest cover in Punjab by ‘five to six per cent’ by 2015. The department will also have to bridge the gap between wood demand and supply, improve tree cover in state forests, increase farm trees from 17 to 28 per acre and maintain sustainable development of public forests for optional resource management.

According to a Forest Department official, the compact plantations cover an area of 529,175 hectares. The department is also managing rangelands over an area of 2,680,200 hectares in Thal, Potohar, Cholistan and Dera Ghazi Khan tracts. “There is strong sense of crisis in forestry, forest goods and services. These goods and services, once thought to be abundant, are becoming scarce now. The area under forest can’t be increased with available resources, however, its production can be minimised through intensive management and enhancing inputs.”

He said forest reserves were depleting at an alarming rate however, funds had been allocated for new plantations and regeneration. The felling and thinning operations should be carried out where essential, he added.

There are reports of massive timber theft from state forests that needed to be checked by the authorities. Five per cent timber is being stolen from the state land annually. “The ratio increases under political set-ups,” said a source.

The Forest Department is launching a scheme entitled ‘enhancing tree cover in Punjab through farmers’ to increase the number of trees on farmlands.