FATA's 4200ha forest cover declined since 2000, says Global Forest Watch report.

ISLAMABAD -- The erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) now the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have seen a decline of 4200 hectares in the forest cover.

This was revealed in a report issued by the Global Forest Watch highlighting the loss of forest cover in the world.

The research claimed that from 2001 to 2018 FATA lost its 4200ha of tree cover equivalent to 4.1 percent decrease in tree cover since 2000 and 9,60,000 tonnes of Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (as the trees lost would have absorbed these CO2 emissions released freely in the year).

Moreover, the Global Forest Watch data showed 36ha increase in tree cover gained by the FATA from 2001 to 2002 which was equal to 100 percent of all tree cover gained in FATA.

"In 2010, the former FATA had 43,900ha of tree cover, extending over 1.8 percent of its land whereas in 2018, it had lost 25,700ha of tree cover equivalent to 5,660 tonnes of CO2 emissions," it added.

It merits mention here that the report says, "Tree cover loss is not the same as deforestation-tree cover loss includes change in both natural and planted forest and does not need to human caused."

The data sources for the report were satellite images collected through Hansen, University of Maryland, Google Earth, United States Geological Survey and NASA technologies.

In order to detect forest fires in the area, the visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) technology was employed to get real time and accurate data. "There were 1VIIRS fire alert reported in 17 October, 2018 which was low compared to the same week in previous year. However, 26 VIIRS fire alerts were reported in 21 November, 2018...