The forest situation is deteriorating due to unskilled manpower as the forest net has reduced to only 2.2 percent from 3.3 percent in 1990, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad.

He said that in the country, the forest area was 25,270 square kilometer ( 3.3 percent of land) in 1990 which was reduced to 21160 sq km ( 2.7 percent of land ) in 2000. The area has declined to 2.2 percent of land ( 16870 sq km). He said that the country was having eight agricultural universities and 50 agri based colleges which are producing the quality manpower in forestry. These are the right person to be recruited in the Forest Department. He said that the university can assist the forest department to train the manpower. He urged the government to set up a committee to look into the deteriorating situation of forest. He said that according to data of Numbeo, Peshawar was having the worst profile in term of pollution and greenery whereas it is the house to Pakistan Forest Institute. strict Officer Environment Shoukat Hayat stressed upon the need to aware the people must about potential hazards of deforestation. He said that forests provided vital wood supplies and helped combat rural poverty, ensure food security and to fight watershed protection. He was of the view that over the past 50 years, about half of the world original forest cover has been lost. MPA Muhammad Rafique said that ecosystem is degraded or exploited due to increasing pollution, deforestation, emission of smoke from industries and climate changes. The situation must be coped with lies in social mobilization and promotion of plantation. Institute Director Javed Akhtar said that our planet was losing over 15 billion trees each year that is 56 acre of forest every minutes. We need to stop that trend. He said that there is the need to reverse the project by planting more trees. Punjab Forest Research Institute Director Dr Muhammad Afzal said that the climate changes, air and water pollution, low net of forest were posing a serious threat to the environment. Dr Irshad Rammay and Dr Anwar-ul-Hassan also spoke on the occasion.