Forest protection council of 10 villages has been formed which comprises of one member from all the ten villages. This council meets once every quarter and discuss the issues related to protection of forests especially in case of violations by residents of other villages.

For every village in the project area the forest protection committees have been formed and trained by the elders of the Khura village who have been protecting their forest for more than fifteen years. These committees consist of ten volunteers each and meet every Friday after the Friday prayers and impose fine and penalties on the villagers who cut wood from the forests. They plan to utilize these fines for the development of the villages. So far the committees have not fined any body for any violations with respect to cutting of trees. Villagers and people living in the forests are not cutting trees for firewood after the announcement of the ban. They meet their requirements from biomass available on the farmlands or from trees not included in the ban. The volunteers of these committees are selected in such a manner that they could guard all the exits from the forest.

The NGO has effectively mobilized the communities and line departments in promoting the cause of forest protection. Now there is a spirit of competitiveness among forest protection committees with respect to their achievements for protection of forests and they try to take lead from one another as better protectors of forest. These committees are proactively involved in conservation of their forests and they are very sensitive about the damage to their forests. Some of the communities have been involved in armed conflict with the residents of areas out side the project area who were trying to encroach upon their forest. In one particular incidence the forest department had to intervene to resolve the conflict of forest area between the community of Khabeki, whose forest is on the boundary with the Chakwal district and political influentials of Chakwal who had leased the land in Chakwal where the district boundaries meet and started encroaching forests of Khabeki due to poor demarcation of forest boundaries. This happened due poor demarcation of land resulting in encroachment by the local influentials. The forest department has now clearly demarcated the boundaries to avoid future conflict.

The watch and ward system established by these communities is very effective and the incidence of wood theft has decreased to negligible level. The forest cover is improving due to controlled grazing and reseeding of sanatha.

The community based system of watch and ward and fining local violators has been modified due to directives given in previous monitoring visit that no fine can be enforced without approval from the forest department. Consequently system of fining the violators has been changed. Now the village committees forward the cases of theft in the state forest to the forest department for fining. In case of theft or wood cutting in the shamlots committees fine the individuals themselves and use those funds on the agreeable community needs.