Sustainable policies needed to protect environment

Speakers say climate change has affected lives and livelihood

ISLAMABAD: Global warming and climate change are affecting the ecosystem, which underlines the need for framing sustainable policies in order to stem environmental degradation on the earth.

These views were expressed by speakers at a symposium on the ‘Ecosystem-based Adaptation: Practices, Challenges and Opportunities in Pakistan’ on Tuesday.

The event was organised jointly by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc) and Worldwide Fund (WWF) Pakistan.

The speakers highlighted that disturbance due to climate change had largely affected lives and livelihood of vulnerable communities and ecosystem-based adaptive policies should be put in place so that implications of the change in weather patterns could be minimised.

“All long-term policies should be formulated keeping in view the ground realities so these could be implemented without any hindrance,” said Farzana Yaqoob, Minister for Social Welfare and Women Development, Azad Jammu and Kashmir while addressing the opening session of the national experts symposium.

She suggested that implications of climate change could be minimised by introducing sustainable policies.

Ministry of National Food Security and Research Joint Secretary Syed Moazzam Ali said Pakistan was rich in biodiversity and it must be protected from degradation.

Reminding the audience that more than 10 million people had been displaced in the last disaster in Pakistan, Ali stressed that the government would support all policies that addressed the ecosystem and climate change challenges.

Parc Chairman Dr Nadeem Amjad said the symposium picked a very important subject in the backdrop of the world summit on climate change which was held recently in Paris and reached an agreement.

He pointed out that the world was facing tremendous challenges of climate change and efforts were made to adopt viable strategies and policies to minimise the impact by focusing on sustainable use of natural resources.

“The ecosystem can provide protection from extreme climatic events by stabilising the movement of water, rocks, snow and serving as a buffer from climatic impacts and hazards,” he stated. Healthy ecosystems could also reduce the socio-economic vulnerability by providing essential goods and services, he noted.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2015.

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