PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa forestry department’s Directorate of NonTimber Forest Products has developed the Chilghoza Forest Ecosystem Management Plan as a strategic framework for conservation, restoration, responsible utilisation of pine nut forests, which generate over Rs10 billion annually for the province.
The NTFP supports local communities in harnessing valuable non-timber products in a sustainable manner while ensuring the preservation of the rich biodiversity of the forests, according to director Rashid Hussain. He told Dawn that initially, the plan would be implemented in Dir, Kohistan and Kalam regions with intention to replace short-term, unregulated extraction of pine nuts with a sciencebased and participatory approach.
Mr Hussain said the initiative was meant to identify and map chilghoza forests, assessstanding trees and potential production, rehabilitate degraded areas, improve collection and processing, strengthen the value chain and build the capacity of forest-dependent communities.
He said under the management plan, one of the most practical interventions introduced by the NTFP directorate was the distribution of sustainable harvesting toolkits accompanied by field-based training for collectors and forest dependent communities.
‘The toolkits include equipment such as cone cutters, safety belts, climbing spikes, helmets, gloves, gum or resin removers and long-range pruning or harvesting tools. These are intended to improve collector safety while reducing the need to pull, cut or break conebearing branches,’ he said.
The director said prior to proper training and handing over harvesting toolkits, the residents employed traditional methods and the collectors used to climb the tall trees and picked cones by hands which was not only dif-ficult but also damaging to the trees, cones and collectors.
He said with proper training, those interventions had improved the collectors’ awareness and harvesting knowledge.
‘Communities are increasingly able to distinguish mature cones from immature ones and to collect the crop with less physical damage to trees,’ he said.
According to departmental field observations, the use of improved equipment and the adoption of better harvesting practices have contributed to higher production andbetter-quality cones.
Although chilghoza is a high-value product, forest communities have traditionally received only a limited share of its final market price. Many collectors sell whole or partially dried cones to outside traders because they lack processing, storage, grading and packaging facilities.
In Kalam and Utror, the management plan estimates that around 90 per cent of collectors sell dried cones without extracting the nuts themselves. And in the case of Chitral, almost 80 per cent of collectors sell cones to traders without processing. Traditional extraction can also break or leave behind part of the crop, while poor storage, packaging and transportation contribute to post-harvest losses.
‘To address this imbalance, our directorate has established a processing unit for the pine nuts in Sharingal, Upper Dir, to move the communities beyond the sale of raw cones and enable them to participate in processing, product development, packaging and marketing,’ he said.
According to him, by processing the pine nuts in the respective area, communities will retain a larger share of their value while creating local employment, including opportunities for women and young people.
Additional opportunities include controlled drying, cone crushing, shelling, roasting, cleaning, grading, vacuum packaging, cold storage and the production of branded oil and other specialised products.
The management plan shows that modern cabinet drying can reduce processing time and improve nut quality, while roasting, peeling and grading can substantially improve profitability and market access.