The Impact of Deforestation on Environment in Pakistan

Abstract

Forests are among the fundamental ecosystems that regulate and impact a region's temperature, climate, and carbon dioxide emissions. Growing urbanization and industrialization caused substantial increases in forest degradation, which raised the average surface temperature of the world. Numerous catastrophes have occurred in recent decades as a result of excessive and unregulated forest destruction. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of deforestation on Pakistan's ecology between 1990 and 2021. We employ the Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) technique for this. The findings demonstrate that the depletion of forests has exacerbated Pakistan's environmental degradation. This finding suggests that deforestation contributes to both short-term and long-term environmental damage when all other factors are kept constant. On the other hand, it is determined that urbanization has improved its environmental sustainability over the long and short terms. GDP and GDP squared (GDP2) have a positive and negative effect on CO2, respectively. In other words, greater economic growth can aid in improving environmental performance once the examined nations have attained a particular level of economic development. We conclude that deforestation is important factor for environmental degradation in Pakistan.