Himalayan Forest-Cover Changes in Historical Perspective: A Case Study in the Kaghan Valley, Northern Pakistan

In many studies of forest degradation and deforestation in the Himalaya the forest history is not adequately taken into consideration. This study on the Kaghan Valley (Western Himalaya) examines the historical dimension of forest-cover changes. Detailed vegetation mapping has indicated that the areas of potential forest have decreased by about 50 percent. The historical processes of change from forests to agriculture and rangelands can be divided into several time periods with varying degrees of change. It is determined that the dynamics of landscape transformation are heavily dependent on the general socioeconomic conditions. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century the Kaghan Valley was very thinly populated. Significant changes in the distribution of forests and agricultural lands occurred during the first two decades of British rule from 1847 to 1867. The protective influence of the Forest Department, founded in 1864, considerably slowed down the rates of deforestation. The present-day cultural landscape was essentially in place by the beginning of the twentieth century and since then the quantitative loss of forest cover is negligible. The recent decades are characterized by negative structural alteration within the forest stands and along the forest margins. The applicability of these results to other valleys in the region is discussed and criteria are established for comparison with forest- cover changes in other regions of the Himalaya.