Pakistan vows to protect biologically-sensitive areas

Aslam join hands with global leaders to stem biodiversity loss

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to joint global efforts in protecting environmentally and biologically-sensitive areas to stem the loss of biodiversity resources.

This was stated by the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam while addressing the first meeting of the international High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People. The coalition had been jointly organised by the French and Costa Rican governments on Sunday.

The HAC for Nature and People is an intergovernmental group established to achieve an ambitious deal reached at the Convention on Biological Diversity last year to reverse the severe trend of biodiversity loss and revive ecosystems that are critical to species and humanity’s survival. It also aims to promote the integral role that additional terrestrial and marine protection must play in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

During his address, Aslam emphasised that biodiversity for food and agriculture are amongst the most crucial resources. Crops, livestock, aquatic organisms, forests, micro-organisms and invertebrates – thousands of species and their genetic variability - make up the web of biodiversity that the world's food production depends on.

“Without checking the loss of biodiversity, we will only exacerbate challenges to the sustainability of life on earth,” he warned.

The climate change official went on to highlight Islamabad’s role in arresting the loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation in environmentally-fragile areas.

In this regard, Aslam said that under Pakistan’s Protected Areas Initiative (PAI), measures were taken to improve environmental governance, management, financing and conservation activities on about 7,200 square kilometres.

Under PAI, Pakistan aims to increase coverage of protected areas from 12% to 15% over the next three years.

The prime minister’s special assistant further highlighted that during the novel coronavirus (Coivd-19) pandemic, when most businesses either shut down with their staff either laid off or furloughed, around 85,000 green jobs were created for the virus-affected people through the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP).

Aslam underlined that Pakistan has practically demonstrated through its TBTTP, Green Stimulus Initiative, Protected Areas Initiatives and the Recharge Pakistan programmes how nature-based solutions can be converted into an opportunity during the pandemic for both, providing green economic opportunities and jobs while protecting the ailing biodiversity and environmental sources.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2020.