KEY to economic and human development is the preservation of ecological resources. Sadly, Pakistan often fails on this count; many environmentally important sites continue to suffer damage across the country. In many cases, the state fails to adequately protect sites or properly apply the relevant laws, while citizens are irresponsible about garbage disposal and do nothing to make their environment a priority. The UNDP country chief for Pakistan, Toshihiro Tanaka, indicated such attitudes when he said on Saturday that it was time for civil society to take up the challenge of ecological losses. Speaking at the inauguration of the Narreri lagoon, a Ramsar site near Thatta that has been rehabilitated by the UN agency, he said that the revival of the country's depleting wetlands and green meadows needs immediate attention. Wetlands are significant as flora and fauna habitats and as sources of sweet water. Furthermore, they also provide substantial economic benefits to human communities by constituting a source of food, livestock grazing grounds, fuel-wood, irrigation etc. Indeed, the citizenry as a whole is a stakeholder.

The framework under which initiatives can be taken is already available. The Convention of Wetlands of International Importance, commonly referred to as the Ramsar Convention after the Iranian city where it was adopted in 1971, came into force in Pakistan in 1976. Currently, 19 sites, with a surface area of over three million acres, in the country are designated as Wetlands of International Importance. As Mr Tanaka pointed out, little attention has been paid to improving and preserving these sweet-water sources, particularly in Sindh. It is time this deficiency was addressed, and the state and citizenry started taking an active interest in the preservation of their ecological treasures. It should not be only the UN that is rehabilitating such sites. Pakistanis should do so too.