January 22, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 12, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: Experts and participants of a workshop on Saturday underscored the need for a strong political will, strengthening of public-private partnerships and institutional implementation mechanisms to deal with depleting ecosystems and threats to livelihoods.

According to a press release, the consensus emerged during a one-day national workshop on ‘Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation in South Asia (ESPASSA), Pakistan situation analysis’ jointly organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Sungi Development Foundation and IUCN here on Monday.

Dr Shaheen Rafi Khan, Research Fellow, SDPI underlined the need for policy, institutional and programmatic interventions focusing on forestry reforms, joint management forest committees, strengthening of public-private partnerships and initiatives for protected areas management for the stability and resilience of the ecosystems in Pakistan.

Sharing the preliminary findings of his ongoing research under the project ‘Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation Study in South Asia (ESPASSA)’ he gave a thorough analysis of the situation of Pakistan covering present status of diverse ecosystems and landscapes, human and natural drivers of change in these landscapes, linkages between ecosystems, livelihoods and poverty, management and governance of these ecosystems and information gap.

Sohail Malik, country representative, IUCN-Pakistan, urged government agencies, civil society organisations and international organisations to work together through converging interests and actions to come up with governance mechanisms, property rights mechanisms, policies, laws and various other instruments for better management of ecosystems and to ensure security of livelihoods.

“Ecosystems are essential for human survival and well-being, and if the status-quo persists, the end result would be increasing ecosystem degradation and greater human and other life sufferings, miseries and poverty,” he cautioned.

He also stressed the need for more policy research on this subject without which they would not be able to brings convergence in policies and actions.

Dr Bashir Vani, inspector-general forests, presiding over the session on ecosystem management, poverty alleviation, and public policy process in Pakistan, maintained that climate change was a serious threat to ecosystem services and they should give equal attention to all sectors to effectively deal with biodiversity and conservation issues.

Dr Iqbal Sial, managing director, Forestry Development Corporation, speaking on legal, policy and capacity-building issues, emphasised that political will and institutional reforms were extremely essential for the implementation and conservation of biodiversity in our country, adding that his department has gone through a massive process of core and preferential reforms over the years which was an encouraging sign but unfortunately a political will was still missing.

Journalist and programme manager, Asian Development Bank, Mohammad Ismail Khan, giving an alarming insight of rapidly depleting natural resources of Northern Areas, urged the need of inclusion of local communities in the decision-making process, coordinated efforts and more research on Northern Areas and its resources to preserve the endangered ecosystems which were under extreme threat due to building of Karakurum Highway, military interventions, NGOs movement and tourism coupled with 2.7 per cent population growth and role of market forces.