‘Recharge Pakistan’ project to conserve ecosystems

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Malik Amin Aslam on Monday said Pakistan will execute its ambitious Recharge Pakistan project for conserving dwindling ecosystems, flood water, habitats and generate green livelihood opportunities for local masses.

He was speaking at a webinar organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on "Accelerating adaptation in Asia through large-scale Nature-based Solutions" at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP-26) meeting in Glasgow, which was virtually live stream.

Aslam said investment in nature based solutions (NbS) was having associated benefits of chipping many blocks together like nature protection and employment creation that ensured the sustainability of NbS projects.

He said the WWF-Pakistan was working in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change on Recharge Pakistan project which would be financed through Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Green Climate Fund (GCF) funding.

"Recharge Pakistan will boost nature reserves, climate adaptation and ecosystem restoration of the country which will have positive impacts on the entire region," he said.

Aslam mentioned that there were over a dozen new national parks sprawling over 8,000 square kilometers, were added to the existing national parks of the country that created green jobs for the local communities and ensured protection of the national parks through community ownership of the national parks.

He said the project cost was Rs3 billion out of which the government of Pakistan would co-finance $100 million and Green Climate Fund (GCF) would chip-in US$50 million whereas the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) would ensure the remaining amount of the project's cost. Initially, four pilot sites were selected to restore the dying and dried up wetlands in the regions of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

The SAPM said the Ministry of Climate Change would lay its complete focus on initiating the pilot phase of Recharge Pakistan through indigenous resources as the international funding was awaited.

He said the main objective of the project was integrated floodwater management with revival of degraded wetlands causing habitat loss, however, in the pilot phase wetlands would be established in hill torrents region of Koh-i-Suleiman Mountain Range between Punjab and Balochistan, Dera Ismail Khan's hill torrents and Asia's largest Manchar Lake in Sindh was also part of the pilot project.