Punjab Minister of Agriculture and Forests Malik Ahmad Ali said global deforestation and degradation had a negative role towards climate change for which initiatives such as Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) was important as a mitigation response to climate change.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of a training seminar on climate change and REDD organised by the Punjab Forest Department. Malik said the world was losing forests at an alarming rate of about 13 million hectares per year and the major cause for this massive deforestation was the removal of forests for agricultural, housing and industrial uses.
In Pakistan, pressures on forestry resources were high and the country had one of the highest deforestation rates in Asia despite its scant forestry resources. He said Pakistan’s rural areas relied on forestry resources to fulfill their energy requirements.
Malik said that in response to the threats posed by climate change, the United Nation Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCC) was adopted in 1992 and Pakistan was one of its signatory along with 194 other nations.
He said Pakistan was contributing to the carbon emission resulting in global warming, but at the same time, as a developing nation, it intended to participate in all efforts made globally to mitigate the effects of climate change.Malik further said that it was satisfactory that the Forest Department was going to establish a REDD Cell at Punjab Forestry Research Institute, Faisalabad and has planned to take other global organizations on board for moving forward through a collaborative effort.