Endangered protected sites

A significant, weighty argument has been raised by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature in its Supreme Court petition for proper demarcation of 250-odd ‘threatened’ protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries, game reserves and national parks. This would more or less guarantee that extensive development work carried out under the aegis of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would not affect the identified protected sites because stakeholders would be forced to align their development, investment and expansion plans with the curbs recommended under the law. In the long run, the move would be good for investors and the authorities both at the federal and provincial levels. A three-judge bench of the apex court is currently looking at some violations such as felling of trees in the Margalla Hills and quarrying work in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

If proper demarcation is not carried out, there is a real danger that the protected sites would fall into the grubby hands of encroachers and squatters. This is perhaps why the WWF petition has requested the apex court to order a Geographic Information System-based delineation of the protected areas of the country.  The petition has proposed that the federal government could provide funding as well as assistance through the climate change ministry and the provincial wildlife, forestry and fisheries departments. The benefits of a GIS-based delineation are clear: helping alert unsuspecting buyers and potential developers of the dangers posed by encumbrances on the properties falling within the protected areas. Through this technology, it becomes possible to mark out the boundary of a region with a degree of accuracy and avoid glitches and ambiguities. It had been cumbersome and tricky to rely on the notifications issued by the different provincial authorities on delineating boundaries because most of the time these authorities had failed to accurately identify the same.

The Pakistan Climate Change Fund was established following the enactment of the Pakistan Climate Change Act 2017 so that the country could meet the country’s obligations under the international conventions. It is now up to the authorities to provide financial assistance to appropriate projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2018.

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