PHOTO: AFP
This was stressed by speakers during a seminar held to mark the World Wetlands Day at the University of Peshawar (UoP). The Environment Society of the UoP had organised the awareness session at the Department of Environmental Sciences.
The main theme this year is ‘Wetlands and Biodiversity’ as approved by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The purpose of the seminar was to create awareness amongst the students and encourage conservation measures for wetlands in the country which need to be done on a priority basis to combat the climate change impacts and avoid biodiversity loss.
Speaking on the occasion, organiser of the Environment Society Dr Asif Khan Khattak said “Wetlands are important ecosystems and their biodiversity are under threat in Pakistan”.
Khattak said “Wetlands conservation also contributes to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of climate action, life below water, and life on land”.
Department of Environmental Sciences Professor Dr Muhammad Nafees said: “Wetlands associated with Kabul River in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) are shrinking because they are being transformed into agricultural land, and this is leading to biodiversity loss.”
Nafees said pollution was one of the important factors that had been damaging the ecosystems.
Dr Hizbullah Khan, another professor at the UoP’s Environmental Sciences Department said environmental chemistry of wetlands was changing and this was affecting biodiversity at large scales. “Eutrophication in wetlands is an emerging problem that needs to be addressed,” he added.
The speakers said according to the convention a total of 19 sites in the country are considered as wetlands.
They said wetland biodiversity conservation could be achieved under the fourth Ramsar Strategic Plan of 2016-2024.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 25th, 2020.
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