Letter of Intention

Agriculture plays a very vital role for economy of Pakistan and its development. 48% of labour
force is engaged directly with agriculture. So it is the main source of living or income of the
major part of economy population. About 70% of population is relates to agriculture directly or
indirectly. Agriculture is the major source of food for huge population of Pakistan. Agriculture is
also the major source of provision of raw material to industrial sector of Pakistan. Its
contribution towards GDP is about 25% which is higher than contribution of any other sector.

About 4% of land is covered with forests in Pakistan. This is the major source of paper, lumber,
fuel wood, and latex medicine. It is also used for the purpose of wildlife conservation and
ecotourism. Forests cover one third of the earth's land mass, performing vital functions and
supporting the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people.

Forests are home to more than half of the world’s land-based species of animals, plants and
insects. They combat climate change because of their capacity to remove carbon from the
atmosphere and store it, which is called forest mitigation.

Forests also buffer the impacts of storms and floods. By feeding our rivers, forests supply
drinking water for nearly half of the world’s largest cities. They also provide shelter, jobs and
security for forest-dependent populations. Limiting the average global temperature increase to
1.5°C will be impossible without a major role for forests, both because of the massive emissions
reductions that can be achieved by ending deforestation and because of the additional carbon that
can be sequestered through improved forest management and reforestation. Eliminating
emissions from deforestation and increasing carbon removals by promoting forest regrowth and
landscape restoration could reduce global net emissions by up to 30 per cent, and over the next
decade, forests could provide as much as 50 per cent of the cost-effective mitigation available.
However, each year approximately 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed. This deforestation,
together with agriculture and other land use changes, is responsible for roughly 25 per cent of
global greenhouse gas emissions.

Pakistan has 4.2 million ha of forest and planted trees, which equates to 4.8 percent of the total
land area. Forty percent of the forest area comprises coniferous and scrub forest in the northern
hills and mountains. The balance includes irrigated plantations, riverine forests along major
rivers of the Indus plains, mangrove forests of the Indus delta and trees planted on farmlands.

With only 0.05 ha of forest per capita against a world average of 1.0 ha, Pakistan is
comparatively forest-poor. The high population growth rate (2.61 percent) is pushing the figure
further down and, at present, it is not possible to expand public forest area at a high enough rate
to keep up with demand for forest products. However, farmers are encouraged to establish
plantations on farmlands and wastelands to help ameliorate the situation.

Benefits from forestry in Pakistan include the following:

 Five hundred thousand workers are employed in forestry and related industries such as
logging, village carpentry and manufacture of timber components for the construction
industry. However, the forestry sector contributes only 0.3 percent to GNP.

 Between 1996 and 2000, on average, 31.66 million m3 of roundwood and 2.35 million
m3 of industrial roundwood were produced annually from state forests and farmlands. A
further 532 000 m3 of industrial roundwood was imported annually to meet national
demand.

 Forests supply 32 percent of Pakistan’s total energy needs in the form of fuelwood.
Ninety percent of rural, and sixty percent of urban households use fuelwood, together
with other forms of biomass as their primary energy source.

 Forests provide forage for one third of Pakistan’s 86 million head of livestock. Leather,
wood and other livestock products contribute US$400 million or 9 percent of total export
earnings. Trampling and browsing by increasing numbers of livestock are causing forest
destruction and uncontrolled grazing is a major obstacle to sustainable forest
management.

 Forests are vital in protecting the catchment areas of reservoirs used for power generation
and irrigation. Agriculture, which contributes 26 percent to GDP, is highly dependent on
irrigation in Pakistan and annual losses due to flooding, soil erosion in upland watersheds
and siltation in reservoirs and irrigation works is estimated at Rs.2.3 billion.
Forest ecosystems encourage the evolutionary development of poisons as defense mechanisms
for plants and animals. Many of these poisons also have medicinal use some known by local
people and used traditionally, some used in western medicine. Forests also produce commonly
used compounds, such as cola, caffeine, chocolate and chili peppers, as well as cocaine. Local
people in tropical Asia, Africa and Latin America have considerable knowledge of medicinal
plants. Their traditional health care systems are widely considered important, especially given
the absence of more formal health care services. Medicinal plants are used widely across the
world, and the market for traditional medicines is large and expanding. The less valuable
medicinal plants are often collected and sold. Evidence of the efficacy of some traditional
remedies is growing. Medicinal plants, particularly those with slow growth patterns, are
threatened globally. Some of the threats include commercialization and global markets, loss of
traditional mechanisms that contributed to sustainable use, and competing uses of the same
species. Certification and better management techniques offer two possible partial solutions.
Traditional practitioners are dominant providers of health care and greatly outnumber personnel
from formal health care systems in many forested areas. These practitioners, with varying
specialties, tend to take an empirical and often holistic approach to health care. Local people
often use both traditional and ‘modern’ health care systems and sometimes prefer traditional
practitioners. The distribution of benefits from forests is a controversial issue, rendered
emotional by a widespread sense of injustice. Forest peoples are considered by many to be
inadequately compensated for their knowledge of forest medicinal plants, and many believe that
pharmaceutical companies reap unacceptably large profits, given the poverty of forest peoples.

Keeping in mind above mentioned literature, I want to continue my PhD studies in concerned
university as, it has well-furnished labs where I can perform numerous experiment to determine
the potential of forest trees against different plant pathogens. Pakistan is developing country and
here I don’t have enough resources to perform my experiments. I have already a good exposure
of performing pathological research trials and it will be more pleasure for me if you allow me to
study at your university and make some contributions accordingly.

Thanks in anticipation

Shoukat Hayat