Pakistan's green spaces — particularly its forests and mountainous regions — are in a desperate struggle for survival. They face a double threat: an increasingly volatile climate and a ruthless timber mafia. Both forces, one natural and the other man-made, are devastating precious tree cover. While nature's fury may be beyond human control, the human predators are not — yet those tasked with reining them in often act as their protectors.

No surprise, then, that a well-entrenched nexus of vested interests — corrupt officials, their political patrons and greedy timber traders — has placed the fast-depleting forests of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at the heart of what may be the biggest timber scandal in Pakistan's history. For decades, this unholy alliance exploited legal loopholes and weak governanc

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