"The Reversing Deforestation and Degradation in High Conservation Value Chilgoza Pine Forests in Pakistan" (Chilgoza Project) is a donor funded project of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United nations. The project is a part of the global initiative named “The Restoration Initiative “(TRI) involving eleven national projects and ten countries, The Chilgoza project was formally approved by the GEF Council in April 2018 and became operational in early September 2018.
Background:
Chilgoza forests are occurring in the dry temperate zone of Pakistan. These forests grow between 2000 to 3350 meters above sea level in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan. The chilgoza forests either occur in pure patches or mixed with other coniferous tree species like deodar, and blue pine. These forests hold tremendous importance from both ecological and economical perspective. Though the accurate value of this ecosystem is yet to be assessed, but this has high significance for its non-timber forest products including chilgoza nuts, medical plants, mushrooms, honey and biodiversity with positive contribution to the local livelihoods. However, these forests are under tremendous pressure due to the increased demand beyond their capacity. The main threats to the chilgoza ecosystem include unsustainable harvest, overgrazing, conversion to agriculture land natural disaster and climate change.

Objectives:
To contribute to the restoration, protection and sustainable management of Chilgoza Pine forests to provide global environment benefits and enhanced resilient socio-economic development in Pakistan (1,763,802 MTCO2 equivalent) in addition to the improved local livelihoods through the increased productivity and enhanced services and functions of the chilgoza ecosystem. The project, in addition to the local benefits, will also contribute to the global environmental benefits by mitigating estimated Greenhouse Gas emissions amount of 2,782,420 tCO2eq (direct) and 7,724,809 tCO2eq (consequential/indirect) in the considered biome and timeframe.

Achievements:
Targeted valleys and areas of natural regeneration has been supplied with plants. Distribution of 30,250 forest 3041 fruit plants has been carried out respectively in the target areas. 40 hectares block plantation and 0.5 Hectares Nurseries has been established in the region of Diamer.