Coastal management: minimising biodiversity loss
Goal 14: Life below water
• Pakistan has a 1,050 kilometre coastline spanning across Balochistan and Sindh
• Inland water resources have dwindled from 5,000 cubic metres per capita in 1947 to less than 1,000 today
• Coastal pollution and climate change directly impacts the welfare and livelihoods of nearby populations
Rio+20, held in 2012, culminated with the agreement to focus on 17 goals as a build up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2030. All nations agreed to abide by a commitment to focus on these 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure a safe, sustainable and peaceful world that would continue to support life on earth for future generations. The interpretation of these goals was to ensure they were action-oriented, concise and global in nature. Goal 14, aimed at the Integration of Oceans into the SDG framework, calls for Pakistan’s commitment to ensuring the sustainability of oceans and marine life with special attention to the welfare of populations dependent on ocean life. Pakistan has a 1,050 kilometre coastline, of which 250km falls in Sindh and 800km in Balochistan. In 2014, the World Maritime Organisation, having recognised Pakistan’s rightful claim, extended its international waters by 50,000 sq km.
Pakistan has witnessed various happenings in its ocean fisheries environment, with numerous incidences of large mammals – sharks and whales – washing up dead on its coastlines, similar to the incidence of the whale deaths reported in Australia earlier this year. With seas and oceans being over-polluted due to human activity and serving as repositories of human waste, chemical pollution and dumping grounds for industrial non-useable outputs, our ocean has turned into a junkyard. This toll on marine life directly impacts the welfare and livelihoods of communities dependent on these resources.