Socio-Economic Drivers of Deforestation in Roghani Valley,Hindu-Raj Mountains,Northern Pakistan

Deforestation and associated ecological disturbances are the issues of global concern.Researchers have investigated a number of driving forces which accelerate the rate of deforestation at local and regional levels.These include poverty,population growth,market demand and prices,political instability,agricultural expansion and changes in property right and ownership regimes.This paper seeks to explore the impacts of population growth,changing tenure system and other socioeconomic factors on the forest cover of Roghani Valley,located in Hindu Raj Mountains,Northern Pakistan.The present study is mainly based on information collected through participatory observation,selfadministered interviews and questionnaire survey.Geographical Information System(GIS) database is also used for mapping and quantification.The results reveal that in the past three to four decades the study area has been subjected to severe deforestation and about half of the forest area has been converted into barren land.Thus,the area under natural forests decreased from 2099 to 1444 hectares in four decades.This large-scale deforestation is attributed to both proximate and under lying causes particularly traditional land tenure system and demographic development.Consequently,forest resources have been degraded and a number of plant species have disappeared from the forests of the study area while several others are in the process of disappearance.

Forest cover dynamics in Palas Valley Kohistan, Hindu Kush-Himalayan Mountains, Pakistan

Forest cover change in the mountainous region is driven by a variety of anthropogenic and natural factors.The Hindu Kush-Himalayan Mountains has experienced a considerable vegetation cover change due to intensive human activities,such as population growth,proximate causes,accessibility,unstable political situations,government policy failure and poverty.The present study seeks to find out the impact of population growth and road network expansion on forest cover of Palas valley based on remotely sensed data and employing geospatial techniques.Changes in forest cover were determined by classifying time-series satellite images of Landsat and Sentinel 2 A.The images of October 1980,2000,2010 and 2017 were classified into six land cover classes and then the impact of population growth and accessibility on forest cover was analyzed.Furthermore,forest cover and land-use change detection map was prepared using classified images of 1980 and 2017.The data were collected mainly from field visits(ground verification),census reports,Communication and Works Department,Kohistan.Satellite imageries were obtained from the United States Geological Survey’s websites and classified in ERDAS imagine 2014 and ESRI ArcGIS 10.2.1 using supervised classification-maximum likelihood algorithm.Result of this study revealed that a substantial reduction in forest cover has taken place mainly in the proximity of human settlements.On the average,during the study period,annually more than 460 hectares of forest area has been converted into other uses.

Dynamics of Communal Land Degradation and Its Implications in the Arid Mountains of Pakistan:A Study of District Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkuwa

Similar to other areas of Pakistan, land resources in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KP) is kept under various ownership regimes for socio-economic and ecological benefits. For the last three to four decades, communal lands and resources are subjected to high rate of degradation and deterioration, which is leading to multifarious socio-economical and ecological implications. This paper intends to look into factors that are responsible for the degradation of communal land and the adaptability of the management mechanisms developed by the local inhabitants to conserve these resources. Moreover, this study also explores the sustainability of these adopted strategies in present circumstances. Data regarding socio-economic parameters of the inhabitants and their interactions with communal lands were collected through questionnaire cum interview method. As long-term climatic data for the area do not exist therefore focus group discussions were conducted to document the changing trend in rainfall regimes and temperature variations for the last about four decades. Results indicate that communal lands are highly vulnerable to degradation due to biophysical and anthropogenic factors. Local inhabitants have developed suitable measures to control the situation, however, accelerated socioeconomic transformations in the area have weakened the role of local institutions and that led to further degradation of these resources. Nevertheless, a number of locally formulated rules have been revived and implemented and it is hoped that these threatened resources would be conserved.