ISLAMABAD Nov 04 (TNS): It is the mafia who is the serious threat to natural forest resources, not the local communities. Illegal logging by the mafia is also a major driver of deforestation and loss of natural forest cover, which needed to be curtailed.
“Hundreds of thousands of cases are pending in courts on illegal logging and not a single case has yet to conclude. We need to raise awareness among communities on forest resource conservation and especially young generation need to mobilize. This is the areas where media can play a crucial part through enhance reporting on the issue.”
These were the views of experts at the Pre-COP Consultation on COP23 & REDD+ Implementation in Pakistan at Islamabad. The consultation was held as a collaborated effort by National REDD+ Office, Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
Inspector General Forests, Syed Mahmood Nasir said that now it was about time to take actions and Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) is new paradigm, new knowledge and new hope to mitigate global emissions and mitigating the drivers of deforestations. He said if implemented successfully and legally regulated, REDD+ program will generate not only employment opportunities but also ensure socio economic benefits for the communities.
REDD+ is well thought out program and there is need to put all our efforts and resources on the successful execution of it. Key to success is to involve all stakeholders, especially private forest owners and communities at all level of policy formulation and implementation process, Nasir added.
Speaking earlier, National REDD+ Coordinator, Dr. Ghulam Akhber said that unfortunately, we don’t have national land use plan, which is also one of the major hurdles in conserving our national forest resources. There is need to tell and educate our communities on the climatic changes and need to take them into confidence on benefit associated with REDD+ mechanism to prevent from the threats of environmental changes, he added.
The concern for Pakistan REDD+ program in upcoming Conference of Parties (COP) 23 is to see the progress on demonstration of REDD+ activities around the developing countries, benefit sharing and market mechanism. Pakistan needs to learn from the experience of other countries which have the same complex forest resources types, Akbar added.
Earlier, Jaime Sevenrino Romo, Mexico based REDD+ experts said that to sustain the global temperature by 2 degree Celsius, the world is still required to cut GHG emissions up to 13.5 gigatone, failing in reduction of emissions will result in global temperature rise to 3 Degree Celsius by 2030. If we want to bring down global temp to 1.5 Degree Celsius, the world may require 19 gigatone of emissions reduction from the current level, he added.
Shafqat Muneer, Senior Advisor Policy Communications and Outreach SDPI there is no sanitization and orientation of media personnel, which is one of the challenges that media is not paying attention to the subject of forest and REDD+. There is around almost 20 percent space available in media on the subject which need to be tapped, he added.
Experts at the consultation suggest developing REDD+ curricula for universities and forestry institution, without which we unable to produce human resource which could take care of the forestry sector in future.
