HE Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad wants to get serious about stopping the smuggling of timber into the capital It is proposing to set up a series of checkposts to examine incoming timber cargoes and interdict those deemed illegal. The plan involves setting up five checkposts around the main roads that lead to the capital, and maintaining a record of all wood shipments into and out of the city. This initiative can be lauded once it begins to show some results, but at the outset there are grounds for scepticism. The timber mafia is far too entrenched an entity to be tackled through a number of checkposts alone. The initiative would be more credible if it were to be expanded to cover timber markets within the city, and if plans to have a muscular presence offorest ofHcers and guardsin the nationalpark area of the capital are put in place.

For the moment, all we seem to be getting are checkposts. If the initiative stops at that, it will be only a matter of time before the timber mafia is able to make arrangements to get its consignments past these points with ease. It will take a coordinated effort on the part of the various city government entities, the DCO, police and environment department, in addition to the MCI, to mount a credible challenge to the timber mafia. At the end of the day, the effort must also include an awareness campaign about trees and how they are our collective asset, the valuable role they play in the ecology of the city, and how great a crime it is to wantonly destroy these gifts of nature for private gain. Tree cover needs to be nurtured and protected from property developers and the timber mafia; a few local departments of the city government working alone will not be up to the task. The checkposts can only be called a welcome development if they are followed up swiftly with more vigorous action.