KARACHI, Oct 16: A seven-year and over Rs700 million ($11.8 million) foreign-funded project to conserve the country’s wetlands and biodiversity has been approved and is expected to be formally launched shortly, it is learnt.
According to sources, the multi-million dollar project, funded jointly by the Global Environment Facility ($3.33 million); the UNDP-Pakistan ($1.5 million), Royal Netherlands Embassy ($4.03 million) and the WWF-International ($1.2 million), Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund ($2.06 million), will be implemented by the Federal Environment Ministry with technical assistance from the WWF - Pakistan and other agencies.
Sources said that despite the generally arid nature of the country’s climate, it supports a diverse array of wetlands.
Over 225 significant wetland resources are on record, 16 of which have been internationally recognized by the Ramsar Convention Bureau — the highest international organization for wetland conservation — as being of global importance.
They said the assortment of marine and fresh water wetlands not only support a unique assemblage of biodiversity including globally important habitats species, but these wetlands also sustain an estimated 13 million permanent residents as well as between three and four million displaced persons from neighbouring countries.
These wetlands are generally degrading owing to the poverty and ignorance of its dependants as well as the mismanagement of its regulators.
They said the project, which commences in 2005 and is to continue till 2112, aims at promoting the conservation of freshwater wetlands and the associated globally important biodiversity.
They said four areas, which are representative of different ecological regions, had been identified. These are the North-West Alpine wetlands complex, Salt Range wetlands complex, Central Indus wetlands complex, and the Makran Coastal wetlands complex.
They said these sites had specifically been chosen to be broadly representing prevailing conditions and typical wetlands conservation problems in each of the four separate ecological regions.
It is anticipated that the demonstration complexes will yield valuable information about wetlands and encourage the development of innovative wetland management techniques that could be readily replicated elsewhere in the country’s national wetland conservation programme.
They said that under the project, baseline surveys would be conducted and data would be collected to develop a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based database, which could be used in decision making and in formulating the country’s wetland conservation strategy.
The project will also help in creating awareness among the masses, wisely managing wetland resources, and in rehabilitating catchment areas to enhance the capacity of the earth to catch and retain more water, and slow down the accelerated speed of siltation by reducing soil erosion by increasing forest cover.
The sources while expressing satisfaction that a much needed wetland conservation project at such a large scale had been approved and would be launched shortly, however, expressed concern that if technically qualified people were not appointed at key positions, the funds would go to waste.
They pointed out that backdoor manoeuvring had already started to get a non-technical South African national park ranger appointed on the key post of National Programme Manager/Chief Technical Adviser.
The said person has no relevant educational qualification or even a degree in wetland conservation, and is also in the retirement age, of 60 years, they say.
They said that in a meeting relating to wetlands held some time back, a top Sindh Wildlife Department official had asked the South African regarding his educational qualifications relating to wetlands.
Within a few weeks, an exposure trip/training for the said wildlife official in Florida (USA) was “arranged”, and since then the wildlife official had converted to be one of the strongest supporters of the park ranger.
The conservationists have urged the government as well as foreign donors — the UNDP, GEF, Netherlands, etc — to ensure that a properly qualified person is appointed to the top key post and other posts in the project, so that neither the amount goes down the drain, nor the environmental programme suffers.
KARACHI, Oct 16: A seven-year and over Rs700 million ($11.8 million) foreign-funded project to conserve the country’s wetlands and biodiversity has been approved and is expected to be formally launched shortly, it is learnt.
