changes are known to make communities and peoples to move from non-supporting
habitats to fertile lands and pastures and these are the driving forces that
make human history.
2.2 Deliberate and planned attempts under the umbrella of social forestry
were made to avert the decline of natural resources compelling man to move
away from want and misery. Social Forestry was one strategy by planners to
engage local community participation in the drive towards reforestation. Social
Forestry conceptually catered to the needs and requirements of the local population
and was a wide-scope activity, where widespread plantations were made for
the provision of fuel wood and other wooden goods. It also envisaged the provision
of food through better environmental stability and ultimately the generation
of income and employment in the rural community. Social Forestry was defined
by the UN FAO as ‘any situation which intimately involves local people
in a Forest activity.’ Social Forestry was intended to help the poor
become self reliant (FAO 1978). Two major factors responsible for the emergence
of the Social Forestry concept in the mid seventies were a) the poor man’s
energy crisis and b) desertification. Both these factors were intricately
linked to many other factors correlated to each other.
3 THE CHOICE OF EUCALYPTUS IN PAKISTAN
3.1 The history of plantations in Pakistan is linked with the need for more
fuel wood and the urge for quick results which all pointed towards hybrid
Poplar
and Eucalyptus species. Accelerated growth experiments on hybrid Poplar, Eucalyptus
camaldulensis and Eucalyptus tereticornis were carried out in 1972 to establish
the comparative merit of the two genera. The research findings identified
that ‘hybrid Poplar and some species of Eucalyptus are considered amongst
the best broad-leaved trees’. (Sheikh M.I. 1972)
3.2 Back in the year 1956, G.E. Brockway and Muhammad Ihsan-ur-Rehman Khan,
read a scientific paper stating that “the chief value of Eucalyptus
in West Pakistan so far has been that Eucalypt species on the Canal Irrigation
has a very fast rate of growth and produced large quantity of fire wood”
(Brockway and Khan 1956) Reference was made to provenance trials back in 1974
where it was reported that “in case of 7 years old E. camaldulensis,
6 out of the 22 sources, at Peshawar,. Hyderabad and Sukkur have shown outstanding
performance.” (Siddiqui, 1974)
3.3 S.M.A. Qadri is conspicuous amongst the local scientists in introducing
Eucalyptus in West Pakistan and in the published proceedings of a Conference
held in Peshawar, he read an article on ‘Selection of Eucalyptus species
for afforestation in West Pakistan’ emphasizing that ‘after all,
the idea of planting Eucalyptus is to get maximum value production on a short
rotation. As long as the species grow vigorously for a period of 10 years
it will meet our demand’. Again in the same Silvicultural conference
Mehmood Iqbal Sheikh had submitted in his paper entitled ‘Eucalyptus
planting in problem Areas’ that ‘versatile qualities of the genus
Eucalyptus coupled with its remarkable adaptability to various climates has
made it a multipurpose species for planting’. Predominant Eucalyptus
in Malakand Agency.
