J. Mt. Sci. (2014) 11(1): 167-179 e-mail: jms@imde.ac.cn http://jms.imde.ac.cn DOI: 10.1007/s11629-013-2770-x

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Abstract: Deforestation and associated ecological disturbances are the issues of global concern. Researchers have investigated a number of driving forces which accelerate the rate of deforestation at local and regional levels. These include poverty, population growth, market demand and prices, political instability, agricultural expansion and changes in property right and ownership regimes. This paper seeks to explore the impacts of population growth, changing tenure system and other socio-economic factors on the forest cover of Roghani Valley, located in Hindu Raj Mountains, Northern Pakistan. The present study is mainly based on information collected through participatory observation, self-administered interviews and questionnaire survey. Geographical Information System (GIS) database is also used for mapping and quantification. The results reveal that in the past three to four decades the study area has been subjected to severe deforestation and about half of the forest area has been converted into barren land. Thus, the area under natural forests decreased from 2099 to 1444 hectares in four decades. This large-scale deforestation is attributed to both proximate and under lying causes particularly traditional land tenure system and demographic development. Consequently, forest resources have been degraded and a number of plant species have disappeared from the forests of the study area while several others are in the process of disappearance. Keywords: Deforestation; Natural Vegetation Cover; Population Growth; Traditional Tenure Systems;

Land Use and Land Cover Change; Household Dynamics

Introduction

Presently deforestation is one of the most important global environmental concerns in the developing countries of the world. It has been considered to be one of the main driving forces in changing land use and land cover (Southgate 1990; Pichon 1997; Sydenstricker-Neto 2012). The causes and driving forces that are accelerating this process varies both in space and time. Researchers working on the dynamics of tropical forest have investigated a number of driving forces and variables and their impacts on deforestation at local and regional levels. These include poverty, population growth, market demand and prices, political instability, agricultural expansion and changes in property right and ownership regimes (Allen 1985; Angelsen 1999; Barbier and Burgess 2001; Geist and Lambin 2001; Carr 2006; Malingreau et al. 2012; Naughton-Treves and Day 2012; Pouliot et al. 2012; Robinson et al. 2013; Walter 2012). Usually these variables play pivotal role in deforestation outside the tropics as well. Moreover, deforestation is also considered as a main component of global coupling and carbon emission (Liu et al. 2007; Zarin 2012) and it usually leads to a number of environmental problems such as soil erosion, biodiversity losses,

Socio-Economic Drivers of Deforestation in Roghani Valley, Hindu-Raj Mountains, Northern Pakistan

Fazlur RAHMAN, Fazlul HAQ*, Iffat TABASSUM, Ihsan ULLAH

Institute of Geography, Urban & Regional Planning University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25100, Pakistan

*Corresponding author, e-mail: fazli_haq@yahoo.com; First author, e-mail: fazal367@hotmail.com

Citation: Rahman F, Haq F, Tabassum I, et al. (2014) Socio-economic drivers of deforestation in Roghani Valley, Hindu-Raj Mountains, Northern Pakistan. Journal of Moutain Science 11(1). DOI: 10.1007/s11629-013-2770-x

© Science Press and Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Received: 3 May 2013 Accepted: 9 October 2013

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desertification, and habitat destruction. In most of the developing countries population

growth and property right issues are the main causes of deforestation (Hardin 1968; Sharma and Banskota 1992; Pretty 2003; Fazlur-Rahman 2007 2009; Owen et al. 1998; Steins and Edwards 1999; Eckholm 1975; Jodha 1992, 2007). According to Geist and Lambin (2001: 40) “issues related to property rights institutions are reportedly associated with deforestation in 44% of all cases. In specific, these are land tenure insecurity, land races, conditions of quasi open access, malfunct customary rights, low empowerment of local user groups, and, even, legal land titling procedures.” This situation is further deteriorated in localities where remoteness and lack of capacity to implement forest related regulations by the state as owner creates a de facto open access system (Angelsen 1999: 186).

Generally, in most of the developing countries including Pakistan forest resources are owned by the state and forest departments are entrusted to develop working plans for proper and efficient management of these resources. However, all the forest area is not owned by the state. There are other ownership regimes as well such as Guzara forest in the Hazara region of north-eastern Pakistan where the bona fide households of the village are the main stakeholders (Azhar 1989). Similar situation also exists in the former state of Dir (Text Box 1), where at present more than 90% of the natural forests are kept and managed under private ownership (GoKPK 2011). Changes in the forest ownership have occurred in many countries of south Asia, and in the early 1990s the government of Pakistan also introduced new policies regarding forest ownership and management. One of the main objectives of this paradigm shift was to empower the stakeholder at local level (Khattak 1998).

Pakistan has been placed in the category of those countries where forest ownerships are ill-defined, contested or insecure (Naughton-Treves and Day 2012). At the same time there are contradictory statements regarding the forest cover and deforestation rate. According to Government of North West Frontier Province (2009) […] “In total, between 1999 and 2005, Pakistan [has] lost 24.7 percent of its forest cover, or around 625,000 hectares.” Similarly, official sources, at provincial

levels, also show considerable differences in forest cover and deforestation. According to the agricultural statistics of Pakistan, from 1982-1991 the forest area of NWFP (North West Frontier Province) increased by 53 percent and this increase is mainly attributed to reforestation programs. However, other official document reported quite rapid decrease (10.5%) in forest cover from 1991 to 2004-05 (GoNWFP 2009). This has been attributed to rapid increase in human and livestock population of the province and conversion of forest area into fields and barren land. Moreover, the latest published sources have shown considerable increase in the forest area of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the adjoining tribal areas (GoKPK 2012). On the other hand, the print and electronic media is always lamenting on the reckless deforestation in the country particularly in the mountainous region (Imam 2011). Consequently, and similar to other localities (cf. Ives and Messerli 1989) calculation of reforestation as well as deforestation rates became a major challenge for researchers. Moreover, research conducted at micro level in different parts of the northern mountainous belt of Pakistan reveals considerably high rate of deforestation (Allan 1987; Aase 1999; Eberhardt et al. 2006; Ehlers 1996, 1997; Schickhoff 1995; Schmidt 2000; Israr-ud-Din and Fazlur-Rahman 2003).

The present study is focused on a mountainous district in Khyber Pakhtunkhaw province where at present most of forests are owned and managed by the local inhabitants as communal property (Fazlul-Haq et al. 2011; Fazlul-Haq 2012; Text Box 1). For detail study a valley consisting of eleven villages has been selected where deforestation process is going on quite rapidly. The main objective of this study is to find out the role of changing property rights and the effect of increase in human and livestock population on deforestation.

1 Study Area

This study is conducted in Roghani Valley located in the Hindu Raj Mountain (an offshoot of the Hindukush Mountains Range) lying between 34°54'33" to 35°00'28" N latitude and 71°55'35" to 71°00'13" E longitude. This valley stretches

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northward from the right bank of River Panjkora in Lower Dir district and reaches up to the high mountains in Upper Dir district. The height of the study area ranges from 500 m above mean sea level in lower parts to over 3,000 ms in the upper mountains. The whole valley is divided into four altitudinal belts locally known as tal including; Jelar, Sami, Shahkani and Shalkani and eleven villages (Figure 1). The first five villages, Shalfalam, Mano, Khararai, Shalkani Payeen, Shalkani Bala, are part of Lower Dir district while the remaining six villages including Umarkot, Shahkani, Naseerabad, Gato, Samai and Jailar are located in the administrative jurisdiction of Upper Dir district. Within the Roghani territory there is a prominent landmark (watershed) dividing the study area into upper and lower parts. The wide altitudinal variation determines the uneven distribution of forests and other natural resources in the valley. Jailar is the northernmost and highest village of Roghani territory and the steep hillsides are covered with thick natural forests. Highest

intensity of forest cover is found in Umarkot and Gato and villages located in the northern/upper part of the valley have relatively low forest cover. Similarly, villages located in the southern/lower part of the valley have sparse forest cover (Fazlul-Haq et al. 2011; Fazlul-Haq 2012).

The study area is inhabited by Roghani tribe which is divided into four main clans; namely Mahmood Khel, Kwadezi, Yaqoobzi and Enazi and each of them is further divided into three sub-clans making up a total of 12 entities and the sub-clans are divided into a number of lineage groups. The population of Mahmood Khel and Kwadezi clans is distributed throughout the valley, while the other two clans are settled in few villages. These four clans are de facto owners and have equal share in forest and other resources located within the territorial limit of the valley. However, the non-bona fide residents, such as blacksmiths (ingar), prayer leaders (pesh imam), and barbers (nai) have only usufructuary rights in cultivated land and irrigation water awarded to them in return for the

Figure 1 Study area: location and physiography.

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services they perform to the tribe (cf. Sultan-i-Rome 2005, 2007).

2 Methodology

The present research is mainly based on primary data collected through focused group discussion, questionnaire survey and participant observation. Reconnaissance survey was conducted in the study area in May 2011. During this survey unstructured questions were randomly asked in local language (Pashto) from the household heads regarding land tenure system, resource ownership, utilization, management and deforestation process. Later on questionnaire was designed containing both closed and open ended questions regarding the main variable of the study such as population characteristics, livestock ownership, herding methods types of animal fodder and sources of fuel for cooking and space heating, and land holding size. Pilot survey was conducted in the study area in July 2011 and a total of 50 questionnaires were filled for pretesting of the tool. After testing the questionnaire, it was translated into local language by the researcher. For self-administered questionnaire survey the study area was divided into four strata based on the locally known altitudinal belts i.e. tal. Two graduate field assistants were appointed for a period of one week to carry out the questionnaire survey. The field assistants were selected from the study area and were paid 400 rupees per day on daily wage basis from the researcher’s own resources. The services of local assistants made it easy to coordinate with the elders and cope with the literacy problem. A total of 252 household heads were interviewed out of 2,521 households making a sample size of 10 percent (Table 1). The households were selected on the basis of stratified proportional random sampling method. The number of samples representing each stratum i.e. tal, was proportionate to the total number of households in that stratum in order to avoid over or under representation. The samples were then randomly

picked from each tal. However, care was taken to select households from all the twelve sub-clans to make the study unbiased.

Besides questionnaire survey, at least one focused group discussion (FGD) was conducted in each of the four tal. The FGDs were scheduled on Sundays (non working day) and were kept open for all the inhabitants of the valley in order to have maximum participation. However, it was made sure that the group contains at least one elder from each village located in that tal in addition to one representative from each of the four major clans. These open forum discussions were focused on temporal changes in land tenure system and its impact on the rate of deforestation. Information collected from this method provided the main basis of retrospective discussion on tenure systems and related problems in resource management and deforestation issues.

For the preparation of location and relief maps of the study area and analysis of forest cover dynamics, database was created in Geographical Information Systems by using Google earth images, topographical sheets of 1:50,000 scale, land use survey maps of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prepared in 1970s (GoNWFP 1975) and Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data of 90 meter spatial resolution. Total geographical area, vegetation cover and area under plough were computed from these maps using ArcGIS. In addition to that, on spot verifications were also

Table 1 Characteristics of population and sample households.

Shalkani Tal

Shahkani Tal

Sami Tal

Jelar Tal

Total

Total Number of households1972 100 66 104 186 488 1981 129 84 132 230 613 1998 358 178 407 451 1,475 2011 426 382 825 888 2,521 Surveyed Households 43 38 82 89 252 Population 1972 981 980 1,145 1,760 4,8661981 1,574 1,327 1,585 2,464 6,9501998 3,382 2,217 3,254 3,936 12,7892011 4,889 2,862 5,086 6,200 19,037Average Household Size 1972 10 14 11 9 10 1981 12 16 12 11 10 1998 9 12 8 9 9 2011 12 7 6 7 8

Source: GOP 1972, 1981, 2000 and field survey, 2011.

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conducted in the study area.

3 Results and Discussions

3.1 The dynamics of natural vegetation cover

Information collected through group discussions and analysis of temporal land use maps, reveal that about four decades ago, the mountains and hillsides of the upper three tal including the villages of Jailar, Samai, Shahkani, Gato, Naseer Abad and Umar Kot were covered with thick forests. Clearly visible change can be observed by comparing the natural vegetation cover of 1970 and 2011 (Figure 2). The overall proportion of natural vegetation cover was 66% of the total land area in 1970, which has decreased to 45.4% in the past four decades. This analysis shows that deforestation has been quite rapid in Shalkani Tal, where the forest cover has decreased from 50% to 15%. Only small

patches of natural vegetation and widely spaced trees can be seen on the hilltops. Whereas, lowest rate of deforestation has been recorded in Shahkani Tal where 5% decrease has been found out in vegetation cover during the study period. The north-western parts of Jelar and Sami Tal have also been deforested. The area under natural vegetation decreased from 73% to 38% in case of Jelar Tal and from 63% to 47% in Sami Tal in the past four decades (Figure 2). Nevertheless, the situation is relatively better in the upper part of the valley as compared to the lower one (Figures 3 and 4).

3.2 Temporal changes in species composition and distribution

In the upper part of the valley, the main species in the past were chir pine, wild olive, swich sorrel, segeretia theezans etc. Besides these wild species, a variety of planted fruit trees such as walnut, apple, apricot, almond and orange etc.

Figure 2 The dynamics of natural vegetation cover, 1970-2011.

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case considerable area under forest has been cleared for the construction of settlement ensembles. .

3.3.2 Disintegration of joint families

Joint family refers to a family where more than two parents and their offsprings are living in a single household. Contrary to this, a nuclear family consists of spouses and their children living in one household (Encyclopedia Britannica Online 2011; International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 2008; Wikipedia 2013). For the last few decades this trend of separation of joint families and establishment of nuclear families living in separate households with individually owned resources has increased in the study area. The number of households increased more than six times from 488 in 1972 to 2521 in 2011, and similar to other developing countries (cf. Knight and Rosa 2012), household size also decreased drastically in the study area (Table 1). This increasing trend of disintegration of joint families caused uneconomic fragmentation of agricultural land and other resources, which were insufficient to provide the basic household needs. Consequently, pressure on the communal resources increased that leads to deforestation.

3.3.3 Agricultural land: availability and fragmentation

Only 30% (2,388 acres) of the total land in the valley is suitable for agriculture. The availability of agricultural land considerably varies in the study area and Sami Tal is the richest in terms of cultivated land due to its low relief. Out of the total area of this village, 52.4% area has been brought under plough (Table 2). In Jelar Tal, 582 acres out of 1,731 land is used for agricultural purposes. Shahkani Tal is very poor in terms of cultivated land availability due to rugged and hilly terrain.

Only 16.5% of the total land of this tal is suitable for farming. Almost the same situation can be seen in the Shalkani Tal where only 20.8% of the total land is used for cultivation of cereal and fodder crops.

The data analysis reveals that population growth and prevailing law of inheritance has substantially decreased landholdings size of the individual households in the study area and the average size per household decreased from 4.9 acres (1.9 hectare) in 1972 to 0.9 acres in 2011 (Table 2). Currently the landholdings of more than 95% households are less than the subsistence level as defined by Saunders (1983: 16), where 1.5-2 ha (30-40 kanals) has been considered as subsistence holding for the double cropping areas of Karakorum region.

The scarcity and continuous fragmentation of agricultural land has a number of adverse impacts on other resources, particularly the natural vegetation cover. The focus group discussions revealed that, domestic production from the agricultural land has decreased considerably. Most of the households were self-sufficient both in cereals and fodder about four decades ago. However, at present, majority of them are dependent on market for food items and rangeland and forest resources for fodder. Moreover, it was also found out that in the past only sheep and goats were dependent on the natural vegetation for fodder, whereas, cows, bulls and donkeys etc. were kept at home and fed with the fodder and crop residue. Contrary to that practice, at present, all the animals are driven to the nearby rangelands and forest areas for free grazing.

3.3.4 Sources of fuel

In the remote and marginalized rural communities in general (Khan et al. 2005;

Table 2 Roghani valley: cultivated land; availability and landholdings.

Shalkani Tal Shahkani Tal Sami Tal Jelar Tal Total/averageLand area Total area (acres) 1,479 2,724 1,995 1,731 7,929 Cultivated area (acres) 309 451 1,046 582 2,388 Size of landholdings (acres)1972 3 3.6 10.4 3.1 4.9 1981 2.3 2.9 8.1 2.5 3.9 1998 o.9 1.4 2.8 1.3 1.6 2011 o.07 o.7 1.3 0.65 0.94

Source: Field survey and ArcGIS software calculations.

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one belt or tal through the traditional lottery system locally known as khasanry. The villages included in each belt were allotted to the sub-clans through the same procedure. The same practice was also followed for the distribution of resources among the members of each sub-clan. In the initial stages, allotments were made for a decade. Following the lapse of that time-period the same process was repeated and the allottees of one belt (tal) were shifted to other throughout the area. According to available information the duration of re-allotment (wesh) was increased to 15 years and then enhanced to twenty five years. However, the last phase of allotment persisted for more than four decades and the inhabitants were unable to revise the system through re-allotment. Moreover, the local inhabitants realized that natural resources were degraded quite rapidly. Due to temporary ownership and short term association with the living places, the people were not interested in the conservation of forests. The inhabitants of every tal used to extract benefits from the forests but didn’t care for their sustainability as they had to leave the area in the next phase of garzinda wesh. The communal ownership of forests under this system further exposed them to the process of degradation. Every user tried to extract more benefits from the communal forests under his ownership. With the passage of time the local institutions became weaker and unable to ensure the implementation of rules which ultimately led to the replacement of garzinda wesh system. (b) Permanent Tenure System (Qati Wesh

The system of permanent ownership i.e. qati wesh was introduced in 1890s and the ownerships of clans and sub-clans were permanently defined. Under this system, the ownership rights automatically transfer to the next generation on the basis of inheritance and there is no need to revise the procedure of allocation again. As a general practice in the mountainous areas (cf. Fazlur-Rahman 2007, 2009) the ownership rights pass to the descendents in such a way that all the male children in a household get equal shares from the share owned by their father. Traditionally, women are not given any ownership rights; however, they do have usufruct rights to the resources owned by their male family members (Fazlul-Haq 2012). The permanent allocation of rights was a difficult task keeping in view the equity and access to different

resources. Therefore, contrary to garzinda wesh the rights of clans and sub-clans were not restricted to a single belt; but equal shares were allocated to them in all the four belts. Though, this system was thought to be a better alternative of the old one; however, certain shortcomings are still there with respect to conservation of forests resources (Fazlul-Haq 2012).

The most important aspect of the new system is the privatization of resources, which affected forests in a number of ways. The owners got free hand to utilize forests for domestic and commercial purposes. Another aspect of privatization is the frequent fragmentation of forests area due to continuous growth of population and increasing number of nuclear families (cf. Table 1). At present in most of the villages, forests are fragmented to such a level that the trees are now counted on finger tips for allotment to the owners in the forthcoming generation. The situation is even worse in Shalkani Payeen, Bala and Mano villages where a number of owners share a single pine tree.

In few villages of the study area, due to conflicts in the process of privatization forests resources are still owned as communal property either among the residents of the village or members of a particular clan/sub-clan. As it is evident in such cases forests resources become more vulnerable to degradation, where the co-owners compete with each other for more benefits and do not bother for sustainability. The competition of households, to extract as much benefits from the forests as possible that actually leads to the Hardin metaphor of the tragedy of commons (Hardin 1968). Though wood collected by a household in one season is not usually consumed or needed.

4 Conclusion

From the present study it is concluded that due to marginal location, subsistence economy and lack of other opportunities for off-farm income, inhabitants of the study area are still heavily dependent on the locally available natural resources. Natural forests are one of the important assets supplementing the traditional economy through the provision of basic essentials. Both agriculture and animal husbandry have been

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integrated and heavily depend on forest and rangeland resource. Forest resources are under considerable stress because of increasing extraction of fuel wood, timber and encroachment of built-up area on the forest.

The analysis of the relevant data reveals that the coupling effect of population growth and household dynamics (cf. Knight and Rosa 2012; Sydenstricker-Neto 2012) and changing pattern of ownerships (cf. Nafees et al. 2009; Walters 2012 Robinson et al. 2013) are very closely related with the still ongoing process of deforestation. Though the inhabitants of the study area changed the ownership regime, they were unable to increase the forest cover. Population of the area is still growing at a very rapid rate and there are no signs of any decline in near future. Therefore, almost all the locally available resources will remain under stress and might lead to land use and land cover changes.

Since deforestation is a very complex process and its causes and drivers vary both spatially and temporally, the present study should be considered as a humble attempt to understand and document

this process in a mountain milieu at micro level. More in depth research is need to comprehend the causes effects and resulting scenarios at local, regional and global levels.

Acknowledgement

This paper is a part of a research project entitled “Tenure system as a determinant of resource management and utilization in mountainous areas: A study of Roghani Territory in Dir districts”. We are thankful to the sponsors of this project. The project was funded by Pakistan Science Foundation, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Moreover, the authors would like to acknowledge the elders and school teachers of Roghani Valley who offered every sort of cooperation and hospitality during fieldwork. We are also thankful to the Librarian and lab attendant of the Institute of Geography, Urban & Regional Planning University of Peshawar, Pakistan who were there to give full support in documenting the required literature.

Text Box 1

Govt claims fall flat amid deforestation in Lower Dir “Peshawar: Cutting of trees, which has been going on at a village, near lower district headquarter

Timergra for the last several months has belied the government claims of promoting forestation to counter environmental degradation.

The Forest Department in collaboration with residents of Manogai village, has planted pine and other trees on the hill in 1989 that grew over the years. Last year the residents developed differences over the ownership of the forest and a few persons started cutting the trees in the supervision of police from Balambat police station, source told the news.

The matter was brought into the notice of the Forest Department that failed to take any action to stop chopping down of trees. The department officials, the sources said, exonerated themselves by saying the forest had been handed over to the residents and the department had to do nothing with the trees cutting.

The matter was later resolved by a Jirga of local elders, who forbade rooting out or cutting the trunk but allowed trimming of the trees and the forest was given contractor for trimming.

However, the contractor, in connivance of some residents, is rooting out the trees in the guise of trimming, said the sources. The added that many of matured trees were uprooted and the destruction was still going on but neither the Forest Department nor the district administration had taken any notice of the ruthless cutting.

Some of the villagers, according to the sources, once again approached the Forest Department to stop the illegal cutting but the officials concerned expressed their inability, while the district administration has also failed to protect the forest that has grown in period of over two decades.

Now a question arises as to who will stop deforestation if the Forest Department and local administration remained at bay and why the government is spending millions of rupees on the plantation if the protection of trees is not ensured. This lack of interest on the part of concerned quarters to protect

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