PESHAWAR: Decades of deforestation in Pakistan have turned many lush green landscapes into barren stretches of land. While little has been done to reverse the process, an initiative by a retired botany professor from the University of Peshawar shows that it is not impossible.
Two species were planted in the model forest, evergreen chir pines and Himalayan cedars, which easily grow in the Swat Valley. (Photo courtesy: Biodiversity Conservation Foundation)
Abdur Rashid completed doctoral studies in biodiversity in Japan in the early 1980s. He has been volunteering his expertise and time to support civil society and individuals in their conservation efforts. Among them are several smaller-scale projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, such as Fall Color Garden Chitral or Liaqat Botanical Garden and Qur’anic Garden in Peshawar, and one big undertaking which proves that reforestation is a goal within reach – Bazkhela Mountains Garden.
Everywhere across the globe, restoring even a portion of forest cover where loggers or farmers have razed it is a slow and seemingly endless task, but not futile. After a decade, Rashid’s effort in Bazkhela started to breathe a new life into the Matta region of the Swat Valley.
Abdur Rashid with his team and Sana Ullah Khan pose for a photograph in their Bazkhela forest in January 2018. (Photo courtesy: Biodiversity Conservation Foundation)
With friends from the NGO Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, the professor convinced his friend to donate five hectares of rocky and hilly land to start a model forest.
“We didn’t sign any agreement. I offered my service free of cost, on the basis of sheer trust ,and the generous owner provided land, laborers, and on March 3, 2008 we planted the first tree,” Rashid said during an interview last week, as he recalled that people were skeptical about the project that did not engage special equipment and machinery. But he was confident that it would succeed, because the valley’s environment is especially conducive to tree planting.
“These mountains were dry and investing in plantation here was a kind of gamble, but environmental investment is the need of the hour to protect the country’s biodiversity,” Rashid’s landowner friend, Sana Ullah Khan, told Arab News.
They planted 18,000 trees. Water for every single plant had to be brought from a nearby village until seedlings took roots, which was a travail, but is now appreciated by the local community and people have been approaching the Biodiversity Conservation Foundation to help grow trees on their land.
Barren land stretches across Bazkhela in Swat district in 2008, some 12 years before it was transformed into Bazkhela Mountains Garden. (Photo courtesy: Biodiversity Conservation Foundation)
The forest’s caretaker, Noor Muhammad, said landslides used to be common in the region, posing a constant danger to residents, but now they are no longer because tree roots have reduced erosion by holding soil in place.
In the 12 years since the first tree was planted in Bazkhela, evergreen chir pines and Himalayan cedars completely cover the area. While the trees are still juvenile, animals are already returning to the restored ecosystem. Songbirds, which have once disappeared, are back.
But Rashid is worried. “Being a vulnerable nation against climate change, we need to work for green Pakistan,” he said, explaining that to have a good environment and clean air, a country needs tree cover to extend over 25 percent of its land. In Pakistan, it has already shrunk to less than 2 percent.
