SOMEHOW, most Pakistani sites prefer the colour green. Take, for example, Pakistan Development Gateway’s website, www.pdg.org.pk, which even has a Pakistani flag on the left side to bring home the point. The site claims to be “Pakistan’s first and only development gateway — envisioned as a one-stop website for all significant development information about Pakistan on the Web.” It has more than 2,000 websites under well-known development categories. This information is accessible through a searchable online database.
Apart from that, more than 160 development sector websites created/improved by SDNP are accessible through the PDG. It carries a daily development news section about Pakistan, culled from the national newspapers on the Web.
Going through the 49 sites on environment alone — mostly pertaining to Pakistan — gives you a fair idea of all the work being done at this front. The important links include Official Disaster Relief Website for earthquake victims in the Northern Areas; Pakistan WSSD website; another one on the current drought situation in Pakistan, etc. Pakistan Development Gateway has an Urdu version that can be accessed at www.pdg-urdu.org.pk.
Back in 1992, on World Environment Day, a group of young and enthusiastic journalists felt there was a “vacuum of information and persuasive communication on environmental issues, and so www.greenpress.sdnpk.org was launched. The association aims at the networking of journalists interested in green issues, besides highlighting issues related to human rights and press freedom. Their Press Freedom Reports are quite an eye-opener.
It was also the first to launch Internet radio, providing recorded talk shows on environmental issues, entertainment and programmes for all age groups.
The only problem is that the site is not updated regularly and the excuse given is “GP is a volunteers network and how much time a full time reporter/journalists can steal from his daily routine is anybody’s guess.”
Had I been able to surf the net as a kid, and chanced upon the national geographic magazine for kids magazine, I’d have loved geography, history, nature studies, culture and just about anything on this planet from giant squids, to dinosaurs and even antelopes. Well for all those who squirm but are still curious, log on to www.nationalgeographic.com and voila, a whole new world, and all in colour, too, opens before your eyes. You will learn how crows are better at tool building than chimps, or that there is a dark side of Everest that awaits climbers and so much more. For all you know, you can turn into a virtual traveller.
This website is a product of The National Geographic Society, formed in 1888 with the mission: “The increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge.” It is the world’s largest non-profit scientific and educational organization. Along with its magazine, the National Geographic, they publish Adventure, Traveller, World and now their new classroom magazine, National Geographic for Kids.
Claiming to take “particular pleasure in reporting community efforts to make a more sustainable, eco-friendly, world”, www.peopleandplanet.net/ provides global review and Internet gateway into the issues of population, poverty, health, consumption and the environment. It is published by Planet 21, an independent non-profit company and a registered British charity recognized by the United Nations.
Launched in September 2000, this website replaces People and the Planet, the acclaimed quarterly international magazine. Planet 21 will continue to publish special reports on topical themes from time to time. Planet 21 also produces videos and assists in the publication of occasional books.
The website gets its editorial direction from John Rowley, an award-winning writer and editor with wide international experience who founded Planet 21 in 1992. Contributing editors include Dr Norman Myers, an award-winning environmentalist who has authored 17 books on environmental issues; Paul Harrison, author of Inside the Third World. Among the many luminaries who form the editorial board is our own Syed Ayub Qutub, Director of the Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research, Islamabad.
At the end of the home page is a one-liner which says: “This website should not be confused with www.peopleand-planet.org”. This, of course, leads one to that.
Students are a powerful body and if they choose to use their energies properly, they can achieve the impossible. Take a peep through the bright yellow and green website www.peopleand-planet.org. It is the product of the largest student network in Britain campaigning to alleviate world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment. Originally called Third World First, it was set up in 1969 to raise money for overseas aid. “It didn’t take long for us to realize that raising awareness and campaigning is essential to achieve widespread long-term change, and we shifted our focus to reflect that.” It now focuses on educating and thereby empowering students to take effective action on the root causes of social and environmental injustice. Some of the more notable successes on the environment front in the recent past include their Green Electricity campaign, by which Loughborough and Sussex universities switched their electricity to 100 per cent renewable supply. Three other universities partially switched their supplies in 2001. Again, in 2001, USS, the university lecturer’s pension fund, has contributed to several important successes with help from their Ethics for USS campaign using its financial influence, it helped encourage multinational pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline’s decision to lower its HIV/AIDS drug prices in South Africa. Balfour Beatty’s decision to withdraw from the Ilisu Dam project was another important success which USS contributed to.
Do you want to know what the Brahminy kite looks like or the difference between the tawny eagle and the greater spotted eagles? Will you know a white-tailed eagle if you see one? Well log on to the bright yellow IUCN’s www.edu.sdnpk.org and this quarter learn to live on planet earth with the birds of prey — the kites, buzzards, hawks, shikras, harriers, vultures, the big and small falcons, just about anything you want to know about these species. The site supported by Canadian International Development Agency and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, caters to everyone — researchers, journalists, students, kids, anyone who wants to know more, even those who find it easy to know the facts in Urdu. The idea is to involve each and everyone for the protection and conservation of nature. Thus, the information provided is age appropriate. For example, the kids corner includes riddles, games, quizzes, messages along with facts and articles, depending on the theme.
The website includes the archives section which has research on issues such as mangroves and riverine forests. The biodiversity section which is further subdivided to include Pakistan’s biodiversity to include mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, flora, microbes, protected areas and domestic biodiversity makes you realize how rich we still with regards to our flora and fauna and wildlife.
Even though the picture looks rather dismal from this side, activities for the conservation of the environment do take place. There are many NGOs working for the conservation of the environment. The government has also established certain rules and regulations and proper authorities for environmental conservation. The conservation efforts section is quite an eye-opener when you go through the list of effort gone into protecting our environment by both the NGOS and the government.
SOMEHOW, most Pakistani sites prefer the colour green. Take, for example, Pakistan Development Gateway’s website, www.pdg.org.pk, which even has a Pakistani flag on the left side to bring home the point. The site claims to be “Pakistan’s first and only development gateway — envisioned as a one-stop website for all significant development information about Pakistan on the Web.” It has more than 2,000 websites under well-known development categories. This information is accessible through a searchable online database.
