It is not an easy task to review comprehensively the state of the environment of any country in a limited number of pages, and the task becomes even more difficult and complex when data availability and reliability are serious problems. For a developing country such as Pakistan, ready availability of environmental data is a serious constraint for environmental management. However, there are two areas in which reasonable stores of data are available at present, and these are the water and forestry sectors, which are vital resources for Pakistan’s satisfactory development. Accordingly, these are the principal sectors that will be analysed in this paper. Pakistan has an area of 803,942 km2, and its population at the time of the latest census in mid-1982 was 87.1 millions. In 1982-83, per caput gross income was Rs 4,176, or roughly US $320. Over the past three decades, the growth in GNP averaged 5.5% per annum, with the population growing at 2.8% per annum and per caput real income growth at 2.6% per annum. The average life-expectancy at birth in 1980 was 50 years.
By Asit K. Biswas, 1987. Article published in Environmental Conservation, Volume 14, Issue 4, pages 319-328.