More land, less timber
a thriving timber trade business is taking its toll on the forests of North West Frontier Province ( nwfp ) in Pakistan. Manshera district in Hazara division, one of the two main forested areas of nwfp , had a forest cover of 83,966 hectare (ha) in 1979. The cover had declined to 46,929 ha in 1988. In Sircan Valley, also in Hazara, according to one estimate, if illegal harvesting continues at the existing rate the green cover will be completely lost in the next 15-20 years.
Though contested by independent experts, official figures put the forest cover in nwfp at about 10 million ha or about 17 per cent of the total area of the province, most of it under local communities.
nwfp is the main supplier of coniferous timber or