09 May 2004	Sunday	18 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, May 8: Participants at a seminar on Friday urged upon the government to implement existing laws to check the growing environmental degradation.

Participants cited illiteracy, poverty, urbanisation and lack of awareness as being main factors leading to ecological degradation.

They said that both the government and NGOs should join hands for the conservation of nature.

The one-day seminar on 'The Poverty-Environment Nexus' was arranged by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Head of Environmental Economics Programme International Union for Conservation of Nature Usman Ali Iftikhar rejected the view that the poor people were responsible for environmental degradation, saying latest surveys proved that both the upper and lower class were equally responsible for its degradation.