Forest Dilemma in the Hindu Raj Mountains Northern Pakistan: Impact of Population Growth and Household Dynamics

Haq, Fazlul; Rahman, Fazlur; Tabassum, Iffat; Ullah, Ihsan; Sher, Alam

doi:10.1007/s11842-018-9390-9

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…From 1981 to 2000, the yearly rate of forest loss in Pakistan reduced from 2.9 to 1.7% [7,19,49]. Nonetheless, the situation worsened, with annual forest cover change climbing to 2.4% between 2005 and 2010 [47,[50][51][52]. In Pakistan, deforestation and afforestation are controversial and disputed, as official reports on both are not dependable and difficult to verify scientifically [14,53,54].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Risk Assessment in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Mountains of Northern Pakistan: Palas Valley, Kohistan

et al. 2022

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Forest cover in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) mountains of northern Pakistan has changed dramatically due to community dynamics such as population growth, household dynamics, and intensive economic activity for people’s livelihoods. Demographic development is one of the major factors influencing forest cover change in a previously sparsely populated environment. An abrupt upsurge in population exerts adverse effects on the local natural resources, specifically forests. The present research shows an increase in population from 1980 to 2017, the development of human settlements, and a long-term decline in forest cover. This study was conducted in the Palas valley in the HKH mountains using GIS and remote sensing (RS) technology. Analysis of the changes between 1980, 2000, and 2017 was done using ArcGIS and the maximum likelihood algorithm for supervised classification of Landsat MSS TM ETM+ and Sentinel 2A satellite images. We used Euclidean distances and buffer analysis techniques to identify that most changes occurred within 1 to 3 km of the settlement’s proximity in each period. We also found changes in forest cover to be much greater near settlements than elsewhere in the study area. According to the findings of the study, population explosion and other socio-economic factors have imposed excessive pressure on vegetation cover, resulting in the loss of 17,076 ha of forests in the remote Palas valley.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Risk Assessment in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Mountains of Northern Pakistan: Palas Valley, Kohistan

et al. 2022

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“…In mountainous regions, biodiversity is being vanished or endangered due to land deprivation and the over-exploitation of resources, e.g., IPCC [30] reported that in 1995, nearly 10 percent of the known species in the Himalayas were listed as `threatened' . The increasing scale of degradation of bio-resources in the Himalayas [31] has emerged as a conservation priority at the global level [20]. The importance of biodiversity conservation leading toward the sustenance of ecosystem services is a prevailing theme worldwide.…”

Section: Causes Of Biodiversity Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity Conservation of Western Himalayas: A Pluralistic Approach

Dhiman¹,

Muthanarasimha²

2023

Sustainable Development

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The conservation of biodiversity has been a matter of serious concern all over the world. Regions of the world with rapidly changing land use and economies require transdisciplinary focus to adequately address today’s challenges for conservation, local livelihoods, and development. Himalayan ecosystem sustainability is vital for the employment of approximately 1.3 billion people in Asia. The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) are special for their natural geological wealth, forest, flora, fauna and biodiversity, snow, ice and water bodies, traditional knowledge, and mountain agriculture. It is now widely accepted that the rich and diverse Himalayan ecosystem is fragile. The regions are predominantly populated by local societies. Live in biodiversity wealthy regions of the country, the neighboring mountainous communities are dependent upon biodiversity for meeting their livelihood security. Hence, sustaining biodiversity in the mountain region also means defending the benefit of the people. Recognition of the Himalayas as one of 34 global biodiversity hotspots aptly reflects its wide-ranging ecological significance. Societies across the world have had long-standing traditions of using and caring for nature, but the formal, mainstream, and largely western ‘conservation movement’ is only about 120 years old. Biocultural approaches to conservation represent a synthesis of theory across multiple fields linked to biodiversity conservation, including social-ecological systems thinking, commons theory, bio-cultural diversity and heritage, indigenous natural resource management and traditional ecological knowledge, and different models of participatory and people-centered conservation. This synthesis points to the potential for pluralistic, partnership-based, and dynamic approaches to guide conservation processes.

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“…This study reported an average forest cover of 43.4 km 2 using all image classification algorithms. The last study conducted in this district used a manual approach (digitization) for satellite image classification, conducted by Haq et al [48]. They used land-use surveyed maps to estimate coniferous and alpine forests in the study area of Dir (Lower and Upper) valley, KP.…”

Section: Dir Districtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this forest ecoregion, 21 studies were conducted [44][45][46][47][48]53,[56][57][58][59][60]67,68,70,73,88,89,91,94,95,100]. This is the forest ecoregion in which the largest number of studies were conducted.…”

Section: Western Himalayan Subalpine Conifer Forestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Synthesis of Spatial Forest Assessment Studies Using Remote Sensing Data and Techniques in Pakistan

Ahmad

Gilani

et al. 2021

Forests

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This paper synthesizes research studies on spatial forest assessment and mapping using remote sensing data and techniques in Pakistan. The synthesis states that 73 peer-reviewed research articles were published in the past 28 years (1993–2021). Out of all studies, three were conducted in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, one in Balochistan, three in Gilgit-Baltistan, twelve in Islamabad Capital Territory, thirty-one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six in Punjab, ten in Sindh, and the remaining seven studies were conducted on national/regional scales. This review discusses the remote sensing classification methods, algorithms, published papers' citations, limitations, and challenges of forest mapping in Pakistan. The literature review suggested that the supervised image classification method and maximum likelihood classifier were among the most frequently used image classification and classification algorithms. The review also compared studies before and after the 18th constitutional amendment in Pakistan. Very few studies were conducted before this constitutional amendment, while a steep increase was observed afterward. The image classification accuracies of published papers were also assessed on local, regional, and national scales. The spatial forest assessment and mapping in Pakistan were evaluated only once using active remote sensing data (i.e., SAR). Advanced satellite imageries, the latest tools, and techniques need to be incorporated for forest mapping in Pakistan to facilitate forest stakeholders in managing the forests and undertaking national projects like UN’s REDD+ effectively.

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Forest Dilemma in the Hindu Raj Mountains Northern Pakistan: Impact of Population Growth and Household Dynamics

Cited by 19 publications

References 24 publications

Environmental Risk Assessment in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Mountains of Northern Pakistan: Palas Valley, Kohistan

Environmental Risk Assessment in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Mountains of Northern Pakistan: Palas Valley, Kohistan

Biodiversity Conservation of Western Himalayas: A Pluralistic Approach

A Synthesis of Spatial Forest Assessment Studies Using Remote Sensing Data and Techniques in Pakistan

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