LAHORE, March 12 The Punjab Irrigation and Power Department, the Punjab Wildlife and Parks Department and the World Wide Fund for Nature - Pakistan have signed a letter of agreement to conserve the Taunsa Wildlife Sanctuary.
The agreement was signed by Irrigation Department Secretary Rab Nawaz, Punjab Forest, Wildlife and Fisheries Department Secretary Babar Hassan Bharwana and WWF - Pakistan Director-General Ali Hassan Habib, says a press release issued here on Friday. This is the first such tripartite agreement among these institutions.
The agreement includes development of an education centre at the Taunsa Wildlife Sanctuary to help highlight the area as a potential site for ecotourism. The centre will have a section to highlight the history of the Taunsa Barrage and hydrology display, interactive educational displays highlighting the biodiversity and ecology of the sanctuary, a three-dimensional display model to highlight the functions and significance of a wetland.
The wildlife department will improve watch and ward by increasing patrolling. There is also a plan to develop a management plan for the sanctuary and mapping to delineate the boundary to protect it from encroachments. The WWF — Pakistan will provide technical and financial help for the development and improving management of the sanctuary.
The irrigation secretary said such a partnership must be developed for the conservation of other important pond areas of Punjab giving revenue-generation incentives to communities. This agreement, he said, was a step towards achieving conservation goals of the wetlands.
The forest, wildlife and fisheries secretary said this partnership would go a long way in the conservation of wildlife and riverine forest in Punjab.
The WWF representative thanked the two secretaries for their collaboration and support which, he said, was a beginning of more ambitious conservation work on the wetlands of the province.
The Taunsa Wildlife Sanctuary is recognised internationally through the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands which was signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971 for the conservation and protection of ecologically important wetlands of the world. Pakistan has a total of 19 Ramsar Wetlands and this sanctuary is one of them.
