12 March 2004	Friday	20 Muharram 1425

KARACHI, March 11: Speakers at a round-table meeting observed that purposeful conservation of natural resources and the environment was possible only if relevant public and private sector organizations and agencies join hands to achieve common objectives.

Some of the speakers held that public sector agencies lacked the proactive approach towards the environmental issues, while the private sector watchdogs were unable to develop their capacity as key players in sustainable development.

The meeting's agenda was "Implementation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process in Pakistan," which was organized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Thursday.

Representatives of private and government sectors, biodiversity experts and environment activists shared their views on the current status of EIA implementation during the session, which was also attended by IUCN-Asia Regional Director Aban Marker Kabraji.

The participants were informed that in Pakistan, EIA became a legal requirement under country's environmental laws in 1983, while its rules and regulations were notified in 1999.

It was mentioned by the organizers that despite a robust start, EIA was no longer viewed as an effective tool to safeguard environmental and social interests of development process in Pakistan.

It was stressed that EIA reports should not be taken as mere formality or just a legal requirement, but parties concerned should undertake it as a process, by ensuring follow-ups after issuance of NoC by environmental protection agency concerned, implementing environmental management plans and by independent monitoring of different development projects.

It was also noted that public hearings on EIA reports had also failed to create any significant impact on the situation, mainly due to lack of transparency, frequent changes of venues or holding of these at the places located far away from the project sites.

Besides, the hearings were attended by a small number of individuals, social workers, community people or NGO workers, which reflected that these have also lost their appeal, the speakers pointed out.

A couple of speakers, referring to some ongoing mega projects, including Lyari Expressway, Northern Bypass, Gawadar city project and Chasma power plant, maintained that the huge projects undertaken by the government or donor agencies were being executed without meeting the environmental assessment criteria.

Ms Kabraji said challenges and pressures pertaining to the environment of the region, including Pakistan, could be overcome by joint strategies evolved and undertaken by the pubic, private and corporate sectors.

She called for mobilization of human and material resources available with the countries in the region, besides observance of self-adopted rules instead of just waiting for a set of laws on environment from the governments and their forced implementation.

Mr Javed Jabbar, who is also the chairperson of Pakistan National Committee of IUCN members, identified federal, provincial and district governments, public sector agencies and private sector as the main actors who could fulfil the objectives of environmental stability and sustainability.

The country representative of the IUCN, Abdul Latif Rao, said that the consultative process would lead to effective implementation of EIA in the country.