Fuelwood, timber and deforestation in the Himalayas: The case of Basho Valley, Baltistan Region, Pakistan

During the past century the “Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation” has dominated mainstream views concerning natural resource management in the Himalayan region. The main tenet of this theory is that increased human population has resulted in increased demands for natural resources, leading to severe resource depletion, especially deforestation. In this article, the authors use local data on fuelwood consumption and timber extraction from Basho Valley in northern Pakistan to investigate whether such general perceptions regarding forest depletion can be supported by an empirical case study. The results of this study indicate that local fuelwood collection is not the main cause of deforestation. Instead, the estimated deforestation of about 30% during the last 3 decades is primarily due to commercial harvesting and mismanagement by the government. A large amount of dead fallen wood and green trees was sold by the government or was taken out by a “timber mafia” that emerged during the main period of commercial harvesting in the 1970s and 80s. Thus, it is commercial and illegal harvesting that has left the forest in such a depleted state that it can no longer withstand the pressure from local use.