RAWALPINDI, May 26: The National Council for Conservation of Wildlife has been directed to prepare community development and conservation plans in the areas of houbara bustard hunting.

The decision has been taken after active community participation led to the increase in the population of endangered species like markhor, urial, ibex and blue sheep in various parts of the country.

A meeting of the council held in Islamabad on Saturday allocated the quota of trophy hunting for markhor, urial, blue sheep and ibex.

Presiding over the meeting, Federal Minister for Environment Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said the initiative of trophy-hunting was taken to preserve endangered species and develop the areas that inhabited them. Under trophy-hunting programme, animals reaching a certain age are designated for hunting. The government gets amounts up to $14,000 for each hunted animal from the hunters.

The minister said it was satisfactory to note that remote communities of NWFP, Balochistan, Northern Areas, Sindh and Punjab had joined the conservation drive and now had the ownership of their natural resources. The communities are also trying for habitat improvement by controlling their livestock.

As a reward of their conservation efforts, the local communities are getting 80 per cent of the revenue being earned through trophy hunting. This programme has helped increase the socio-economic conditions of the local communities.

The meeting also reviewed the status of the menace of bear- baiting in the country. The council was informed that generally this practice was now under control and there was no incident of bear-baiting reported by NGOs or the media.

It was decided that efforts would also be made to stop the practice of bear-dancing in the country after careful analysis of its social impact on the poor.