Deforestation and climate change is a biggest threat to the tourism of Pakistan – By : Hamna Abbasi
Tourism industry of Pakistan has a potential of growing it is playing very important role in boosting the economy of Pakistan. Tourism is the earning source of million of people of Pakistan it is the most common business of people living in northern areas of and areas like Murree, Chitral, Gilgit, and Kashmir etc but increasing deforestation is destroying the tourism industry of a country because deforestation cause climate change and tourism industry is highly sensitive to climate change tourism industry of Pakistan depends heavily on weather and natural beauty of the and lack of forest area snatch the beauty of Pakistan and threatens the tourism.
Deforestation rate in Pakistan is world highest. According to many experts forest should cover 25% of total area of country but unfortunately in Pakistan only 5.7% of land is covered by forest. Forest plays very important role in climate because trees are the major source of absorption of polluted gasses like carbon dioxide and carbon mono -oxide which are the source of climate change and pollution. The major cause of deforestation is illegal logging which is very common in the areas like Murree, Gilgit, Swat and Abbottabad where the trees are chopped for the purpose of selling which is used in construction and furniture making. Deforestation is badly impacting one of the most noticeable and growing sector of Pakistan that is tourism. Tourism is playing very key role in uplifting the economy of Pakistan. According to World Travel and Tourism Council 7.2% of total GDP of Pakistan is earned from tourism industry and 4 million people pursue job because of tourism.
Deforestation and climate change discourages the tourism industry in Pakistan. Deforestation cause increase in temperature and disturbs level of rainfall in the country because of lack of trees green house gasses are emitted in the atmosphere and cause global warming. In Pakistan the northern areas and other hill stations like Murree is well known for tourism which mostly dependent on weather and change in climate effects tourism by reducing snow cover and increase and prolong heat waves .As thousands of people living in hot areas of Pakistan move towards cold areas and because of their movement tourism industry generates a lot of revenue and same happens in winters when people visits cold areas to enjoy snow but deforestation is changing the weather pattern of Pakistan and it seems like in very near future the climate will be completely changed and tourism industry will be badly fail to develop in Pakistan.
To develop the tourism it is important to take against those forces which are impacting and threatening this industry .As we get to know the large number of people are dependent on tourism for their livelihood we should stop the climate change by increasing the forest area of Pakistan and to do this we have to plant more and more trees that reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The biggest reason of deforestation is illegal logging because of which more then half of forest area of country is devastating so it is the responsibility of state to take strict action against those who are involved in this kind of activities .It is the forest which increases the beauty of most famous tourist places in Pakistan and if deforestation will continue to increase we will lost the tourist industry in Pakistan and many people will have to face starvation.
