A national seminar was held at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) on “Status of Pakistan Forestry”, here on Tuesday.
The seminar was organized by the Department of Forestry including poster exhibition with the themes of World Habitat Day, International Migratory Birds Day and Disaster Risk Reduction Day.
Hameed Marwat from Sustainable Land Management Project (SLMP) was chief guest while Prof. Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad delivered a lecture as a guest speaker.
In the seminar, Dean, Director and the faculty members of the Pakistan Forestry, Range Management & Wildlife were also present.
On the occasion, Dr. Mushtaq said that forestry was a very important subject in environmental sciences and Pakistan was considered an important country in the world not only due to its geographic but forestry & bio diversity also.
He said that Pakistan’s forests have a bigger threat from the timber mafia so it was responsibility of every citizen to protect the forests from them.
Pakistan has diverse Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the world which could be largely used to meet different kinds of needs, he said and highlighted the significance of the forests which not only help support to normalize the ecosystem but important due to commercial use of NTFPs and a security for health, food & energy also.
While talking to the audience, Hameed Marwat said that forestry was the oldest profession than agriculture of mankind which was not only providing food but also used for medical treatment of the humans.
He appreciated the government’s initiative towards tree plantation which would not only help to combat the climate change threat but also ensure food security to the increasing population.
Prizes were distributed amongst the winners of the poster exhibition and at the end of the seminar Prof. Dr. Maqsood Ahmed, the dean of Forestry, Range Management & Wildlife Faculty thanked all the participants and distributed shields amongst the speakers & organizers of the seminar.
Originally published at Urdu point