Hyderabad, May 31,2011
Chief Conservator Forest Sindh Mir Nadir Ali Talpur has said that community participation in forest management is essential and needs of local communities depending on forest should be addressed. He was speaking at consultative workshop on revision of Sindh Forest act 1927 organized by Sindh Forest Department in collaboration with Indus for All Programme- WWF. He said that an encroachment on forest is major challenges and numerous cases are pending in various courts and due to weak legal support, the department is losing cases. He suggested that forest courts may be established to expedite the cases pertaining to forest. He hoped that revision of forest act 1927 would pave the way for incorporating new concepts in forest management.
Nasir Ali Panhwar, Programme Coordinator of WWF said that consultative process is significant to seek stakeholders’ suggestions for the revision of forest act 1927 and this is first kind of exercise to revisit the Sindh forest act 1927. He said that community managed forest should be made an integral part of revised act, as without community participation forests could not be protected. He added that WWF would provide all possible support to Sindh Forest Department to bring about reforms in governance of forests including global experiences and expertise. He said that WWF has also provided support for revision of Sindh Wildlife Ordinance 1972.
Dr. Ghulam Rasool Keerio said that Sindh forest act 1927 is 84 years old and very few amendments have been made so far. He said that other provinces have revised their acts and Sindh is lagging behind. He said that present act is weak and inadequate to meet ground realities. He added that the act do not cover sustainable management concepts and approaches. He said the implementation of the acts is more focused towards punitive measures. He said that there is no role of communities and as result forest resources has been declined.
Riaz Wagan Conservator Forest said that forests have huge potential for poverty reduction. However, he added that preset act is not result oriented. He said that it has been realized that present act is obsolete. He said that forests in Sindh are facing multiple challenges including shortage of water, encroachments and illegal logging. He said that paradigm shift is needed to save and enhance forest converge in Sindh. He said that vision for forests of Sindh would also be developed in consultation with stakeholders.
Senior serving, retired foresters and representatives of local and international NGOs participated in the workshop. Additional Secretary Forests and Wildlife Aijaz Nizamani, Ghulam Qadir Shah from IUCN, Umeed Khalid from WWF, Ghulam Mustafa Shaikh, Muneer Awan, Dr. Kella Lekhraj, Lala Fazal Balaee, Mehboob Bhatti, Sadiq Mughal, Agha Tahir, Wasif Ali Shah, Zain Daudpoto, Mohammad Khan Samoo, Zafar Talpur, Usama Anwar, Zafar Wassan, Irfan Shaikh, Abdul Sattar Khatri and others spoke on the occasion.
For further Information:
Nasir Ali Panhwar
Programme Coordinator
Programme Management Unit - Karachi
+92-213- 4544791-2
napanhwar@gmail.com
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