KARACHI, Aug 26: The WWF is proposing declaring Nara Canal Game Reserve (NCGR) as a Ramsar Site - the highest international status a wetland can get from conservation point of view.

The WWF maintains that it was considering the proposal on the basis of a commitment made by it earlier with a Pakistani delegation at a meeting held in Spain at Valencia in 2002.

The Sindh wildlife department, however, claims that the site is not sensitive enough to be declared a Ramsar site. It WWF maintains that before starting the process for nominating the site, regular consultations were held with the Sindh wildlife department officials.

The SWD officials, it said, were also asked to conduct a survey in this regard, but the officials owing to some other assignments, regretted. The study was, however, conducted by some other experts.

The SWD, however, maintains that it never agreed to the proposed site (NCGR) for its nomination as Ramsar Site. The SWD stresses that efforts be made to improve the conditions at the existing 10 Ramsar Sites in the province instead of nominating a new site which did not fulfil the criteria in this regard.

The SWD has also raised doubts over the data submitted by the WWF regarding the water bird count. The SWD says that according to Serial No 12 of the resource information sheet submitted by the WWF, the number of water birds at NCGR for year 2002 is 39,000. However, according to a baseline study carried out by Halcrow Pakistan, the number of water birds was 588.

The SWD says that the Deh Akro-II wetland complex has already been declared a Ramsar Site and there exists no better site representing desert ecosystem in whole of desert area falling in Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur and Nawabshah districts. The WWF agrees to this and says that NCGR is not the first site representing desert ecosystem.

The sources said that the WWF had to submit the proposal, routing it through the government, to the Ramsar Secretariat some time back, and now that not only the deadline has expired, the SWD was also raising objections which could further delay the submission.

The WWF maintains that the issue would be sorted out amicably, hopefully soon, while the SWD stresses that rather than getting new areas declared as Ramsar Sites, proposals be made and funds be obtained for the existing Ramsar Sites in the province.