May 07, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 6: The National Council for Conservation of Wildlife (NCCW) has decided to raise tariff on the export of wildlife by an average 50 per cent in order to discourage the commercial export of different species of animals.

The decision was taken at a meeting held under the chairmanship of federal Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi here on Tuesday. The meeting also decided to raise the registration fee for wildlife exporters from Rs10,000 to Rs40,000.

The step has been taken to conserve nature and avoid shortage of wildlife in the country.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the provincial wildlife authorities, leading NGOs like International Union Conservation of Nature (IUCN), World Wide Fund (WWF) Pakistan and World Pheasant Association.

The meeting reviewed nature conservation and wildlife issues and took some policy decisions.

The meeting also reviewed the trophy hunting programme. It was informed that the local communities were provided 80 per cent of income as a reward for their conservation efforts. This income is used for conservation of wildlife and social uplift of the local communities.

The overall quota of 12 Markhor trophies had been successfully utilised by the NWFP, Balochistan and the Northern Areas. However, due to the law and order situation in some regions and inaccessibility of remote areas, some hunts of Himalayan ibex could not be marketed at the approved fee. It was decided that local hunters should be encouraged to avail themselves of the allocated quota.