Research Article Open Access Volume 4 • Issue 6 • 1000237 J Environ Anal Toxicol ISSN: 2161-0525 JEAT, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Ali et al., J Environ Anal Toxicol 2014, 4:6 DOI: 10.4172/2161-0525.1000237 *Corresponding author: Haidar Ali, Ph.D. Scholar at Institute of Development Studies, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan, Tel: +923339350722; E-mail: haiderkpk59@gmail.com Received June 07, 2014; Accepted July 29, 2014; Published July 31, 2014 Citation: Haidar Ali, Shaf MM, Siraj M, Himayatullah, Ullah A (2014) Management of Forest Related Natural Resources through Participatory Approach. J Environ Anal Toxicol 4: 237. doi: 10.4172/2161-0525.1000237 Copyright: © 2014 Haidar Ali, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Management of Forest Related Natural Resources through Participatory Approach Haidar Ali 1 *, Malik Muhammad Shaf 2 , Mahwish Siraj 1 Himayatullah 2 and Aman Ullah 1 1 Ph.D. Scholar at Institute of Development Studies, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan 2 Institute of Development Studies, Faculty of Rural Social Science, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan Keywords: Participatory approach; Pakistan; Sustainable livelihood Introduction Role of natural resources for sustainability of human life is very vital. Extinction of natural resources due to poor management means extinction of human life. Natural resources include land, water, air, forests, animals, plants, aquatic life, atmosphere, minerals, fossils and solar energy. In short, natural resources are wealth on which human well-being and survival ultimately depends. Like other types of capital, the stock of natural resources can be increased or diminished by human activity. Forests are an important natural resource. Poverty alleviation through Natural Resources Management (NRM) has always been debatable and bafing issue in Pakistan. In context of forests management some scholars argue that poor residing near forests are the biggest enemy of forests trees therefore, to involve them in the natural resources management is not an easy task. Pakistan is basically an agricultural country. Agriculture is still the largest sector of the economy. Majority of landowners is small and individualistic. About 86 percent of landowners have their land holdings below 12.5 acres [1,2]. With the passage of time, due to sub division of land holdings based on Islamic law of inheritance, number of small landholders and landless people is increasing overtime. Many small farmers fnding it difcult to eke out their living exclusively from land are raring livestock to supplement their income. Some other small farmers have switched over to multiple employments; still some other farmers are getting out of agriculture. According to Shahid [3] about 100,000 of small farmers is leaving agriculture profession. Due to the above-mentioned reasons poverty is relatively higher in the rural areas as compared with urban areas [4]. To alleviate poverty and to provide sustainable livelihood to farming communities’ management of forest related natural resources along with development of agriculture is equally important. For mankind, forests are an important source. Tey provide timber, frewood, food, fodder, medicines, water and recreation. However, forests are getting depleted and deforested at a very fast rate because the available forest resources cannot meet the expanding forest requirements of population growing at a very high rate. Te situation is quite alarming in developing countries like Pakistan where there is already acute shortage of forest area. Only 4.8 areas are reported under forest while more than 60% is treated as wasteland. For a balanced economy and healthy environment, it is essential that every country should have 20 to 25% of its area under forests. Pakistan is forest defcient country with 4.2 million hectares of forest area out of 87.98 million hectares. NRM is relatively new concept introduced in Pakistan. However, this trusted, tested and old age concept has produced substantial and concrete results in developing countries. NRM includes area like population, women programs, institutional development, community organization, land improvement, agriculture, horticulture, livestock improvement and environmental rehabilitation. Te NRM thus faces challenges of enabling communities to management their natural resources in order to achieve optimum utilization on sustainable basis. NRM aims at reducing losses and improving productivity by helping communities to identify and remove constraints and by increasing their access to more efcient technology. At government level various approaches have been used to manage the natural resources. Afer creation of Pakistan, concerned departments were assigned to identify, design and implement various natural resource programs whether belonging to agriculture, forestry, livestock etc. All programs were centralized in nature. Experience of last 20 years has shown that the “top down” approach has largely been failed to reach and beneft the poor. More recently an approach emphasizing people’s participation has emerged as a possible alternative for promoting rural development. Tis program includes development of human resources and involvement of communities Abstract Topographic and climatic conditions of major parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa warrant special measures for management of natural resources to prevent degradation of land resources, conservation of forest related natural resources, optimization of resource use, provision of sustainable livelihood and alleviation of poverty. National rate of deforestation is around 7000 to 9000 hectares per annum in Khyber Paktunkhwa. Destruction of forests is more evident in certain areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. To reverse this trend and to conserve natural resources, participatory approach has been suggested as an instrument at several national and international forums. The linchpin in the participatory approach is formation and mobilization of Village Development Committees (VDCs). These committees were formulated under Malakand Social Forestry Project. It was assessed through this research how much instrumental have been VDCs to mobilize communities. Results show there is some partial success. Still a lot is needed to improve the working of VDCs. Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology J o u r n a l o f E n v i r o n m e n t a l & A n a l y t i c a l T o x i c o l o g y ISSN: 2161-0525