The World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on the June 5 (today) and this year's theme is "Forest: Nature at your service". The World Environment Day aims to create awareness, through different activities like seminars and walks, on sustainable use of natural resources and protection of environment.
It is an annual event aimed at being the biggest most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. The WED celebration began in 1972 and has grown to become the one of the main vehicles through which the UN stimulates world-wide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.
Like rest of the world, various institutions in Pakistan are also organising events to mark the day. The EPD has chosen three of Pakistan's most prominent cities (Lahore, Muree and Gujranwala) for this year's global celebration of the environment, with a myriad of activities over several days to inspire people around the province to take action for the environment.
In Lahore, the provincial the Environment Protection Department Punjab (EPD) is holding a seminar June 6 at Alhamra Arts Council. Different professors and experts like Dr Aleem Chaudhry, former Director General of Forest Department Punjab, Shahid Awan, Deputy Secretary, Forest Department of Punjab, Professor Ghazala Naseem, Institute of Mycology and Plant Pathology, University of the Punjab, Gulzar Beghum Butt, member legal, Environmental Tribunal Punjab will give their presentation on environmental theme of forest. Students from different universities like Punjab University, UET, Kinnaird College, Lahore College for Women University and people from different walks of life will attend the seminar.
According to an EPD's spokesperson, the Punjab Environment Department has also initiated the Murree cleanliness campaign, from May 30 to June 5, which includes cleanliness of roads and drains, installing of dustbins that are made of recycled plastic waste. A walk has been organised on daily basis for the awareness of the people comes to visit Murree.
She said through WED, the EPD Punjab is able to personalise environmental issues and enable everyone to realise not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development.
The World Wide Funds for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) is also organising various awareness activities to celebrate the WED. They are intending to hold cleanup campaigns with the participation of school children, tree plantation and small local gatherings (to create awareness of environmental issues) in Karachi, Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan. Also, the WWF-P will launch country-wide eco-internship on June 15, which will be open to college students.
Meanwhile, the WED theme "Forest: Nature at your service" becomes very relevant in today world, as global deforestation continues at an alarming rate. According to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), every year 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed, that's equal to the size of Portugal.
In Pakistan, forests are also disappearing fast. As per the WWF-P, Pakistan has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Its forests are in urgent need of protection and conservation. Pakistan is a semi arid country with less than 5 percent of its area under forest cover.
They observed that the major threat to Pakistan's forests is uncontrolled and unsustainable cutting. Reasons for unsustainable commercial harvesting in state forests are: lack of political will and commitment; poor planning; unrealistic forest working plans; and weak implementation of forest protection laws. The primary causes of over-harvesting by domestic cutting in private and community forests are widespread poverty, population pressure, lack of fuel-wood alternatives, and a lack of awareness about sustainable resource use methods. Uncontrolled use of pesticides, diseases and damage by insects, and fires are other causes of forest degradation in the country. The environmental experts observed that the recent climate change phenomenon is partly attributed to deforestation; it is responsible for approximately 20 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions, which has a direct bearing on atmospheric systems. "This is one of the major problem of the whole world, while cutting trees we are contributing in it," they added.
According to them, Pakistan is also suffering with this problem. Deforestation in the country has cause dramatic increase in temperature, no recycling of water, more decertification, soil erosion and decrease in rainfall rate.
Thus, they stress for drastic steps to control deforestation in the country, including awareness programmes, effective poverty alleviation programmes and implementation of laws relating to forest. "We need to change the people's mindset; they should believe the importance of forests in their lives. This very mind-set will help in protecting the existing forests and encourage forestation in the country," they added.