PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has formulated first Rangeland Policy to conserve and develop rangeland natural resource in the province in a very scientific manner.
Ashar Farooq, Range Management Officer Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI) Peshawar told the state-run news agency on Wednesday that a comprehensive first rangeland policy has been formulated by the Forestry, Environment and Wildlife Department KP to conserve and develop this important natural resource in the province in scientific manner.
He said there was no Rangeland Policy to conserve and develop this vast natural resource at national level and after 18th Constitutional amendment, a special task was assigned to PFI Peshawar to formulate the first Provincial Rangeland Policy for the province, adding this task was achieved in 2014.
Farooq said high priority has been given to conserve and develop natural resources at its best level and underlined the need to impart more emphasis on scientific management of rangelands at national as well as provincial level to achieve a level of sustainability and maintaining ecological balance.
Rangeland is a land type having indigenous vegetation with grazing or browsing value and situated in those areas of the world, which are not suitable for cultivation due to some physical limitations such as low and erratic precipitation, rough topography (configuration of land), poor drainage (wetlands) and extreme temperatures.
Rangelands are commonly known as “grazinglands and that all grazinglands are not categorized as rangelands. Grazinglands having natural vegetation only and managed as a natural ecosystem fall in the category of rangelands.
“The total land area of Pakistan is 87.98 million hectares and about 60% of this is rangelands. Five different types of range ecological zones (Alpine, Sub-alpine and temperate; Sub-tropical humid, Sub-tropical sub-humid, Tropical arid and semi-arid desert plains, and Mediterranean) have been described in our country,” he explained.
Asked about overall view of livestock grazing in sub-alpine Grazingland, he said, the total area of KP is 10.17 million hectares whereas rangelands of KP consist of Alpine & sub-alpine pastures, Trans-Himalayan Grazing lands (Dry temperate zone), Himalayan Forest Grazing lands (Moist temperate zone & sub-tropical humid zone), arid/semi-arid rangelands in sub-tropical dry ecological zone located in the valleys of Peshawar, Mardan and upper Indus plains of D.I.Khan Division.
Farooq said the land cover Atlas of Pakistan (2012) published by PFI, Peshawar estimated that the rangelands (including alpine pastures and shrub/bush lands) of KP (excluding FATA) as 1.978 million hectare which constitutes 26.5% of the total area.
In addition to designated rangelands, he said, grazing areas are also found inside degraded open forests, culturable wastelands and areas not used for cultivation. Thus, the total grazing land in the province is much larger than the reported figures for the rangelands, he added.
Asked about grazing in Himalayan Forest Grazingland, the official said rangeland ecosystems provide many goods and services such as habitat for wildlife, a rich source of biodiversity of fauna and flora, carbon sequestration, ecotourism, watershed value and are a major source of forage for native and domestic animals.
“High mountain rangelands are natural sources of water storage and basins of major rivers systems in the region and they provide food directly to pastoral societies and animal proteins to societies downstream,” he said, adding more than 100 million livestock heads rely on these rangelands for forage and feed in Pakistan.
Referring to Economic Survey of Pakistan (2015-16), he said livestock contributes 58.55 percent of agriculture value addition and that livestock population has increased manifolds during the last couple of decades and ultimately this has increased more pressure on rangelands.
He said rangeland area is decreasing due to rapid growth in human population with a need to allocate more area for crop production, house building and industrial development.
Since the animal production systems in rangelands operate on low input basis, therefore, the problem of increase in grazing pressure will become worse over the period of time. The decline in vegetation cover due to grazing pressure will accelerate erosion and desertification of rangelands, he added.
He expressed the hope that new rangeland policy would extremely helpful in protection and conservation of rangelands in the province besides protecting lands from soil erosion, mitigating effects of climate change, global warming and desertification in most scientific manner.
