Making Environmental Sustainability a Reality in Pakistan Authors: Rehan Rafay Jamil Ziahashmi
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making environmental sustainability a reality in Pakistan Authors: Rehan Rafay Jamil ZiaHashmi Edited by: Mehreen Saeed Strategic Management Unit UNDP Pakistan. UNDP is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience andresources to help peoplebuilda better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw onthe people ofUNDPandourwide range ofpartners. Front Cover: Children playing at Gwadar's Oman Beach. Illegal trawling and heavyport traffic is causing environmental degradation in the wetlands ofthe Makran Coast. Foreword akistan is home to some of the most beautiful and varied Ptopography. The majestic mountain valleys of Baltistan in the Himalayas, the Alpine forests ofSwat in the North West Frontier Province, the fertile agricultural lands of the Indus river in Punjab and Sindh, and the magnificent deserts and coastal beaches of Baluchistan are Pakistan's national treasures. The diverse landscape is rich in bio-diversity and communities to protect their environment home to many rare and endemic and improve lives. Each story highlights species ofplants and wildlife. However, some aspect of UNDP's efforts towards Pakistan's fragile ecosystem is under promoting sustainable development with threat. The country's forest cover which the support ofthe Ministry ofEnvironment, is only2.5% ofits total land area is being local and international development rapidly reduced by deforestation. partners and above all the communities Pakistan'swetlandswhich cover 9.7% of themselves. The stories reflect some ofthe the total surface area, are being diverse and pressing challenges facing degraded by pollution, urbanization, Pakistan, as well as innovative solutions to and lack of conservation efforts. These overcome them. From efforts to preserve environmental changes are in turn Ziarat's ancient Juniper forests, to affecting communities liVing across developing a comprehensive waste Pakistan, many of whom are amongst disposal mechanism for the Shandur Polo the poorest in the country. Festival, to community efforts in Dera Ismail Khan to prevent illegal trade in soft-shell The challenges facing Pakistan in turtles, each story is a testament to how promoting environmental communities were able to make positive conservation as an integral part of sustainable changes in their lives. sustainable development are significant. Like many countries around It is my hope that these stories will help the world, Pakistan is experiencing the bring a few of the voices of Pakistan's most effects ofclimate change, compounded marginalized and impoverished by loss in biodiversity, shrinking forest communities into the ongoing cover and the degradation of its development debate. Communities must wetlands. The greatest challenge for be engaged in the development process, Pakistan is endemic poverty and because only then will ourefforts to achieve unsustainable development which environmental sustainability be more threatens to harm the fragile impactful and deliverthe maximum benefit. ecosystems and uproot indigenous populations from the land of their ancestors. Alvaro Rodriguez To mark the Year ofEnvironment, UNDP Country Director, UNDP Pakistan has produced a compilation of ten stories highlighting the human dimension of our work with Engaging Communities Gwadar practice sus ina fishing. Is is because we bow the s as and understand the I portance of easonal Ing. However, tHe trawlers ~ that come into our COCISt are just concerned with making profits at all coasts and it is these people w 0 are de leting the f hing po tlons of the kran coast": Abdul Aziz Fisherman from Gwadarclty. - clean and preserve its ecological systems Salmon has led to the depletion ofstocks and bio-diversity. The high visibility with devastating consequences for the slogans are a reminder to both local livelihoods oflocal fishermen. residents and tourists of the ecological importance of Pakistan's coastal areas. As Abdul Aziz, a resident of Gwadar, and the number of tourists coming Gwadar member of the city's fisher folk increases, there is aneed toclean thecity's community, insists that for the most part picturesque beaches and ensure that local fishermen practice sustainable both local residents and tourists do not fishing. He says the illegal trawling has contribute to the destruction ofGwadar's devastated the local fishermen's coastline. livelihoods. Although trawling is illegal along Balochistan Coast. Aziz says that the Sustainable Fishing: The Life trawlers, backed by powerful mafias in Line oftheMakran Coast Karachi, routinely fish in the waters of Baluchistan. "The fishermen of Gwadar practice sustainable fishing. This is because The imposing Koh-e-Batil mountains we know the seas and understand the loom over Gwadar's sapphire blue importance af seasonal fishing. Hawever, harbour, where local fishermen still dock the trawlers that come into our coast are their traditionally made wooden boats as just concerned with making profits at all part oftheir daily routine to capture fresh costs and it is these people who are produce. The majority of Gwadar's depleting the fishing populations of the residents are employed in the fishing coast~ industry. But the fishermen now have to go further into the Arabian Sea to catch Since the 1970's,trawlers from Sindh have fish, once found in abundance off the moved into the coast of Baluchistan, and coast of Gwadar. Local fishermen claim practiced illegal bottom trawling in the that pollution and illegal bottom trawling area. The trawlers use nets that rope in a primarily from the neighboring province varietyoffish and othersea life ofminimal of Sindh, has led to a rapid depletion in economic benefit buthigh environmental fishing populations. In many other parts value. This kind of unsustainable fishing of the world, over fishing of certain disturbs the entire life cycle ofmany types species of fish such as Cod, Tuna and ofmarine life. Engaging Communities Wind turbines generate electricity using wind pressure. This is considered one of the most promIsIng green technologies at a time when the world faces the unprecedented challenges of climate change and creatIng clean, efficient and renewable energy sources. Wind technology Is relatIvely new in Pakistan, yet it has huge potentIal to help meet the country's growing energy needs Wind Energy Brings Light to Coastal Communities Exploring Innovative Ways to Reduce Poverty in Coastal Communities arran is one the many small Darran's vIrgin beaches are also the villages scattered along the nesting ground forthe endangered Green DMakran coast. It has a population Turtle {Chelonia mydas}, once found of 200 residents. It is a 90-minute drive throughout the Arabian Sea. The turtles from Gwadar city and is located close to are frequently hit bythe growing number the Iranian border. Yet Darran has ofships, oil tankers, and other vessels that changed little over the centuries. It has no enter the Makran Coast en route to the electricity, gas or access to a nearby main Persian Gulf, which has become one ofthe road. Living conditions in the village are busiest shipping areas in the region. PWP extremely basic. has been working with communities in Darran to protectthe nesting sights ofthe Darran has asmall public school building, turtles and simultaneously bring but there are no classes held there. Like sustainable development to this hundreds of abandoned government impoverished community. schools across Pakistan, commonly referred to as "ghost schools, it lies Community members keep a record of unused. The people of Darran are still the number of eggs laid by each turtle awaiting the fruits of development during the breeding season, and then promised to the people of the Makran help release the new-born turtles safely coast. into the Arabian sea. Local residents say the number of Green turtles coming to Green Turtle nesting sights on the beaches of Darran for nesting is Darran Beach: decreasing each year. Already the signs of pollution are beginning to show effects on the Makran Coast's beaches. The black Unlike other inhabitants of the Makran Coast, people of Darran's depend on residue of oil which leaks from passing ships and oil tankers, dotsthe white sandy farming and some fishing for livelihoods. Engaging Communities There was a time when Karachi's coastline and much of the nearby Indus River Delta was covered with dense Mangrove forests, known in Sindhi as nmar. However, rapid urban development, land reclamation projects, illegal encroachments and deforestation has resulted in the destruction of the majority of the city's mangrove forests. Some of Karachi's last remaIning UNDP " GEF'S Small Grant mangrove forests can be found in Kemari, Programme Supports Mangrove near the city's harbor and in the coastal areas and islands near the city. But these Eco-tourism forests are also under threat. Illegal urban encroachments now compete with some The future for Kaka Pir, like so many ofthe of the city's last remaining mangrove fisher folk communities of Karachi, which forests for land. Local NGOs have been are fast disappearing seemed grim. But in active in demanding thatthegovernment 2004, afew members ofthe village led by take action to preserve Karachi's Hajji Mohammad Siddiq, decided to take mangrove forests. While some steps have matters into their own hands. The group been taken, the constant pressures for land in Karachi