Forestry Gwadar

Introduction

According to the Agricultural Statistics of Balochistan 1994-95, Gwadar district has forest on 15,545 hectares while according to the Development Statistics of Balochistan 1989-90 there is no forest area in Gwadar district. The Divisional Forest Officer at Turbat and District Forest Officer at Gwadar do not have any data to confirm or refute these statistics. However, some areas of the district have clusters of trees which are cut and used as fuel wood.

 

 

1980

1994-95

2000 (projection)

Forest Reserve (Ha.)

n/a

15,545

n/a

Forest Plantation (Ha.)

n/a

n/a

n/a

Tree planting (Ha.)

n/a

n/a

n/a

Forest Production (cum.)

n/a

n/a

n/a

Re-afforestation (Ha.)

n/a

n/a

n/a

Source:

Agricultural Statistics of Balochistan 1994-95

Forestry Reserve (State Forests)

There is no state forest in the district.

Commercial Forestry (Plantations)

According to the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), plantation of kahur (prosopis spicigera) was carried out on 222.6 hectares of land in each of the Gwadar and Pasni towns in 1988-93. This was a roadside plantation. Since 1995, plantation has been carried out on 680 hectares in Pasni, 127 hectares in Gwadar, and 50 hectares in Pishukan under the Sand Dunes Stabilisation Project. Apart from this the Muslim Commercial Bank and the Allied Bank Limited have planned a plantation programme in the district. The Muslim Commercial bank is looking forward for coconut plantation with the assistance of Malaysian experts.

Major Vegetation

The vegetation in Gwadar consists mainly of grass and spiny scrubs. Grass and fodder plants are fairly numerous in the district. The landscape is featured with chish (acacia), chigird (), and kahur (prosopis spicigera) in the plains and gazz (tamarix galica) or tamarisk trees in the beds of torrents. Fodder grass is plentiful and found in places where water is scarce. Some plants of pharmaceutical importance including aishak, guldir, morpuzo, danichk (Ispaghol), keraich, udesh are also found in the district. Frequently found plant is pish (nannorhops ritchieana) or dwarf palm which is used for construction of huts in some areas of the district.

Cutting/Marketing/Processing

No record of cutting or processing of wood in Gwadar is available. However people cut trees and dried plants from wood lands for use as fuel wood.

Department of Forestry Development

The Department of Forestry Development has its office in Gwadar under a District Forest Officer. The department is administering a Sand Dunes Stabilisation Project since 1995 with assistance of the World Bank. This project is supposed to last for 5 years in which the project will carry out plantation on an area of 4,888 hectares in Pasni, 2,400 hectares in Gwadar, and 1,000 hectares in Pishukan. For this purpose 4 nurseries were established in 1995 on about 2 hectares land. Out of these 4 nurseries, 3 were established at Gwadar with 1,400,000 seedlings and one at Pasni with 156,000 seedlings. To date plantation has been carried out on 680 hectares in Pasni, 127 hectares in Gwadar, and 50 hectares in Pishukan.

Wildlife

Once the mountainous area in Gwadar district had abundance of Sind ibex (Capra lircus) and mountain-sheep but now the Sind Ibex and Chinkara (Gazella gazella benetti) are found rarely and mountain-sheep are totally non-existent. Urial has been declared as endangered specie. Amongst the birds, most common are See See Partridge (Ammoperdix griseogularis griseogularis) and Water fowls. Amongst the sea-life Sea Snakes are the commonest while species of Plumbeous Dolphin (Sousa plumbea) and Marine Turtles are endangered.

Bee-keeping

Bee-keeping is an alien idea in the district as people are aware of wild honey only.

GO/NGO/Private Enterprise, etc. involvement in Forestry Development

 

 Coverage Forestry Services

Local Govt.

Prov. Govt.

Fed. Govt.

NGO

Internat. Donor

Private Entr.

Tree planting

-

x

-

-

x

-

Tree harvesting

-

-

-

-

-

-

Fuel wood cutting / processing

-

-

-

-

-

-

Fuel wood marketing

-

-

-

-

-

x

Timber wood cutting

-

-

-

-

-

-

Timber wood processing

-

-

-

-

-

-

Sale of timber

-

-

-

-

-

-

Game ranches

-

-

-

-

-

-

Bee keeping

-

-

-

-

-

-

Legend:

-

x

no involvement

minor involvement

Conclusion and major Development Issues

There are discrepancies between the various statistics on forest in Gwadar. Wild plants, grasses, and trees are found of which some are of pharmaceutical use while fuel wood is obtained from clusters of wood lands. Game birds are also found in the area. Plantation has been started under the Sand Dune Stabilisation Project. However, there is more need for plantation.

 

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