Identifying the socio-economic factors of deforestation and degradation: a case study in Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan

Abstract

Deforestation remains a major ecological problem in most developing countries especially, Pakistan has a very high deforestation rate. Various socioeconomic factors determine deforestation and degradation. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate the causes of deforestation in Basho forest, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan. This study collected data on factors of deforestations and degradation resulting in environmental problems such as air pollution, soil erosion, temperature rise and to recommend practices for sustainable forests. A questionnaire survey of 220 respondents was conducted including; educated locals of different age group and forest officials (forest engineers, civil servants and workers) in Forestry service division. Descriptive statistics and a logistic regression model were applied on the collected data and Likert scale method to determine the mean score of socio-economic factors encouraging deforestation. More than 70% respondents were below 30 years old, while 14.6% and 12.6% respondents from 31–40 to 41–50 age groups, respectively. 65.9% and 34.1% of the respondents were male and female respectively. Only 26.8% of the respondents were university graduates, while below 50% (48.6%) of respondents were primary school graduates. According to the analysis, the respondents were completely dependent on the forest for their livelihood needs. The socioeconomic factors such as rapid population growth, livelihood activities, lack of education, Poor forest management, Fuel wood consumption and Period of residence were found to be the prominent factors for deforestation. Results of the logit regression established reward socioeconomic factors were statistically significant variable at (p < 0.05). Based on study results, the deforestation activities cannot be entirely eradicated but it can be reduced to the level of sustainable forest through convenient forest conservation policies and application of efficient and energy conservation technologies. Adequate economic incentives and applied technologies for locals could be a productive approach to reduce deforestation rate.