Consumption rates of major forest products such as timber and firewood, place significant strain on wood stock and forest area in Pakistan. With the country's rising population, the consumption of these two major products is increasing because of the growing energy demand, and no alternative products are likely to replace wood consumption in the near future. We apply system dynamics modelling to an analysis of the forestry sector in Pakistan for novel insights into the drivers and future trajectories of wood consumption. The present research is based on time series macroeconomic data from 1990-2010 and projections to 2040 of wood supply, forest area, population growth, wood extraction, wood imports and different uses of wood in the country. The study reveals that there is no significant increase in area under forest, while consumption of firewood and timber has increased. The consumption of firewood is greater than timber consumption in Pakistan, both in percentage share and in total volume of wood consumption. The sustainable supply of wood is less than wood consumption, and with population growth this gap is increasing; wood supply from agricultural lands is a viable option to fill the gap. Keywords: Wood Consumption, Sustainable Wood Supply, Projected Wood Shortage

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Efficiency analysis of the Partner Organizations can benefit all the microfinance sector's key stakeholders to benchmark the current scene and formulate optimal policy agenda. This study seeks to measure the partner organizations of the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund's social and financial efficiency and to identify causes and sources of their inefficiencies. A non-parametric technique known as Data Envelopment Analysis is applied to investigate the Partner Organizations' efficiency throughout 2005–2015. The required data was obtained from the database of the Mix-Market and Pakistan Microfinance Network. The social and financial efficiency was estimated assuming Constant Return to Scale, Variable Return to Scale, and with respect to the Operational Scale of the Partner Organizations. Results revealed that the partner organizations are more scale efficient (median = 75%) than pure technically efficient (median = 55%). Further, graphical representations show a decreasing linear trend and negative serial correlation in the percentage of efficient partner organizations. The model fit results show that institutional characteristics that influence partner organizations' efficiencies significantly include their age, Operational Self-Sufficiency, personnel, loan officers, assets and debt. Finally, the diagnostic tests for endogeneity, heteroskedasticity, heterogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence were performed.

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