Arid Land Development and Combating Desertification in Pakistan - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 221

Table 12.1 Distribution of arid region in Pakistan (square kilometers)
Province Arid Semi arid Sub humid Other Total area
Punjab 119,310 59,678 17,014 10,197 206,199
Sindh 134,896 6,018 - - 140,914
Balochistan 149,467 19,723 - - 347,190
NWFP 6,194 16,491 15,160 36,676 74,521
FATA - 13,580 11,239 2,401 27,220
Total 409,867 115,490 43,413 49,274 796,044
Source: Sustainable Agriculture, NCS Sector Paper by Dr. G.R. Sandhu

organized by the Ministry of Environment which made suggestions according to the
change environment and ecological scenarios, which were incorporated in the NAP
by RRI. The second draft was circulated to more than 60 relevant organizations by
the Ministry of Environment for their views/comments. The written input received
from various organizations/individuals was again incorporated by RRI and third
a draft was sent to the Ministry of Environment in January 2001. The final draft
has been finalized after a long drawn-out process of consultation with professionals
from federal, provincial and international agencies and NGOs operating in Pakistan.
The action program has been prepared in line with UNCCD guidelines.
The NAP calls for a systematic and comprehensive area-development approach
with people's participation at grassroots level with a bottom-up mechanism for
sustainable management of the natural resources in fragile eco-systems so as to
combat desertification and halt land degradation.

1.1 Present Status

Pakistan is predominantly an arid to semi-arid country with 68 Mha of land lying in
regions where the annual rainfall is less than 300 mm. The extent of arid regions in
various provinces of the country is shown in Fig. 12.1 and Table 12.1 .

1.2 Status Quo Scenario - Land, Population

and Desertification

The two most important driving forces of land degradation in Pakistan are limited
land resources and population increase. The result is small farms, low production
per person and increasing landlessness. A consequence of land shortage is poverty.
Land shortage and poverty, taken together, lead to non-sustainable land management
practices, the direct causes of degradation. Poor farmers are led to clear forest, culti-
vate steep slopes without conservation, overgraze rangelands and make unbalanced
fertilizer applications.