"The number of people affected by floods from 1991 to 2000 is reported to be around 1.5 billion. Disasters caused by floods have been increasing in the recent past, mainly as a consequence of the expansion of settlements and the growth of investment in flood plains", says latest World Meteorological Organization Report.
Southeast Asia constitutes one of the world's most extended high altitude rainforest regions. This region is seriously threatened by various forms of degradations and encroachments, mostly those made by human interventions. With its dramatic geological history, Pakistan spans a remarkable number of the world's broad ecological regions. These range from the coastal mangrove forests of the Arabian Sea to the spectacular mountain tops where the western Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges meet. Misguided economic policies have widened inequalities and forced mountainous people to exploit biodiversity at rates that are no longer sustainable. As a result, processes such as deforestation, overgrazing and soil erosion have become major threats to the remaining biodiversity of high lands in Pakistan. This situation indicates that poverty, lack of planning, bad political system, disproportionate pressure on resources causes degradation in uplands. "Poverty is not the only reason for degradation", is the outcome of this paper.
