Gilgit-Baltistan: fragile mountain fabric — why every patch of wild land matters

By  Syed Shamsuddin

On social media recently, I came across a thoughtful line:

“A patch of yard left wild is more than habitat…. it is a living fabric of pollination, pest control, clear water, and carbon storage that works for FREE year after year.”

This simple but profound expression captures the essence of what small, untended patches of nature can do. It is particularly meaningful when seen in the context of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), where barely one percent of land remains under agriculture and forest cover has reportedly shrunk to a mere 3.58 percent. In such a fragile, high-altitude region, every strip of wild land, every grove of trees, every unmanaged meadow becomes a crucial lifeline.

Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is a landscape of extremes: soaring peaks, deep river gorges and fragile high-altitude valleys. That beauty conceals a harsh ecological reality — only a tiny fraction of GB’s vast territory is suitable for farming and an even smaller portion is forested. Yet those small lands and remnant woodlands punch well above their weight: they deliver pollination, natural pest control, clean water regulation and carbon storage — the same kinds of free ecosystem services captured in the Facebook line you asked about. Below I explain the situation, the causes and consequences, and practical pathways to protect and restore GB’s “living fabric.”

The hard numbers — small areas, big importance

GB’s administrative area is about 7.0 million hectares (≈72,900 km²). Multiple government and scientific reports place forest cover at roughly 3.6% of that area — among the lowest forest-cover shares in Pakistan. At the same time, cultivable or arable land is extremely limited: various studies and reports estimate between <1% and about 2% of the region is actually cultivable, with some official land-use breakdowns grouping small cultivated areas together with farm forests and waste lands to produce larger percentages. These differing figures reflect different definitions and mapping methods, but all agree on the same reality: arable land and forests together occupy a very small share of GB’s territory. fwegb.gov.pk+2The Friday Times+2

Why small patches matter — ecosystem services in mountains

In lowland thinking, a narrow strip of trees or an untended yard may seem insignificant. In mountain systems like GB, however, those patches are keystones:

• Water regulation and clean water: Vegetation and soils retain and slowly release snowmelt and rain, reduce runoff and trap sediment. Riparian vegetation and wetlands act as natural filters for local water supplies. Loss of forest and vegetative cover increases flash floods, landslides and sediment load in rivers — threats already visible in the region. fwegb.gov.pk+1

• Soil stability and erosion control: Roots bind shallow mountain soils. Where trees and shrubs disappear, slopes are more prone to erosion and slope failures. fwegb.gov.pk

• Biodiversity and pollination: Even small patches of wild flowers and shrubs support pollinators (bees, butterflies) and natural enemies of crop pests. In a place where cultivated area is tiny and households rely on kitchen gardens and orchards, pollinators directly sustain food security. parksjournal.com

• Carbon storage and climate buffering: Mountain forests and soils store carbon — not enough alone to solve climate change, but locally important and useful for ecosystem resilience and carbon-focused funding mechanisms. Recent forest carbon inventories in GB quantify this potential and provide a baseline for restoration programs. fwegb.gov.pk

Put simply: in GB, every “patch left wild” multiplies benefits for water, crops, slope safety and climate — and those benefits are effectively delivered for free by functioning ecosystems.

What’s driving the decline?

Several interacting pressures have reduced forest area and stressed the thin band of cultivated land:

• Over-extraction of fuelwood and timber: In many valleys, households still rely on wood and shrubs for heating and cooking, driving local depletion. The Friday Times

• Overgrazing: Communal and household herds graze fragile pastures and tree regeneration zones, preventing recovery. SpringerOpen

• Infrastructure development and unplanned growth: Roads, tourism facilities, and settlement expansion — often without adequate environmental planning — fragment habitats. ResearchersLinks

• Climate change: Glacial retreat, changing precipitation patterns and more extreme events alter hydrology and increase stress on vegetation and soil. parksjournal.com

• Weak land-use governance and tenure complexity: Where ownership is unclear or local people feel excluded from benefits, there is less incentive to conserve and restore. fwegb.gov.pk

Consequences for people and nature

The ecological decline has direct social and economic repercussions:

• Higher flood and landslide risk with greater repair costs and threats to infrastructure. fwegb.gov.pk

• Reduced agricultural resilience as irrigation and pollination services become less reliable, harming food security in a place where arable land is already tiny. gwp.org

• Loss of biodiversity and cultural values, including species and landscapes important for tourism — a growing economic sector for GB. parksjournal.com

Practical pathways forward — restoring the living fabric

Protection and recovery are possible and cost-effective compared to repeated disaster relief. A pragmatic mix of actions can reconnect ecological function with local livelihoods:

1. Community-led forest and agroforestry programs — empower and fund village-level nurseries, community woodlots and orchard renewal. When communities gain secure benefits (fuelwood, fodder, fruit), they protect trees. Pilot programs in GB show promise when local ownership is central. fwegb.gov.pk+1

2. Watershed restoration and natural infrastructure — protect riparian buffers, re-plant steep slopes with native shrubs/trees and restore wetlands to reduce flood peaks and sediment loads. These measures often pay back many times over in avoided damage. fwegb.gov.pk

3. Sustainable livestock management — rotational grazing, fodder plots and incentives to reduce pressure on regeneration zones help soils and young trees recover. SpringerOpen

4. Sustainable tourism and green livelihoods — tie tourism revenues to conservation (park fees, eco-guides, homestays) so natural assets become an income stream rather than a commodity to be cleared. parksjournal.com

5. Data, incentives and policy coherence — scale up forest and carbon inventories, secure land tenure where possible, and use payments for ecosystem services (including carbon finance) to channel funds to local stewards. The Forest Carbon Inventory in GB provides an entry point for such initiatives. fwegb.gov.pk

A closing thought

The Facebook phrase — that wild patches are “a living fabric of pollination, pest control, clear water, and carbon storage that works for free year after year” — is no mere slogan in Gilgit-Baltistan. In a landscape where less than a few percent of the land produces food or holds trees, the ecological services provided by every remaining wild patch are disproportionately valuable. Protecting and restoring that fabric is both an ecological necessity and a development opportunity: it safeguards water and soils, supports livelihoods, reduces disaster risk, and opens doors to green financing and sustainable tourism.