Are K-P's forest policies a cycle of mismanagement?

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), with 40% of the country's forests, covers 14.10% of the land area (Kahlon & Talal 2020). The terrain of K-P is mostly mountainous to the north, northwest, and east.

These forests are the source of water for major rivers flowing from north to south. They offer the richest habitat for biodiversity, tourism, natural beauty, and help stabilise the impacts of climate change on humans and other biota. These forests may also be called the lungs of the country as they supply oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the air through carbon sequestration.

Therefore, these forests play an essential role in balancing the environment across time and space. Besides these goods and services, forests also provide food, shelter, and fruit to humanity at large. Most of the natural forests in K-P belong to local communities and are managed by the Forest Department.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has reported that government-owned forests constitute only 7% of the forested land, while 93% belongs to the people and communities. The legal forest categories in K-P include reserved forests, which are the sole property of the government of K-P. Protected and Guzara forests, in fact, belong to local people and communities but are managed by the Forest Department.

In addition to these legal forest types, there are also community and private forests. In a recent development in the early seventies, the K-P Forest Department planted trees and undertook soil.