‘Save the mangroves for a greener future’

The third national coordination body for mangroves meets.


Ppi November 01, 2010

KARACHI: Pakistan had the world’s sixth largest mangrove forest in the Indus Delta, covering 345,000 hectares of land, but after a rapid reduction, its position dropped to 35th in the world.

The inspector-general of forests, Syed Mahmood Nasir, chaired the third National Coordination Body (NCB) of ‘Mangroves for the Future’ (MFF) in Pakistan on Saturday. MFF is a regional initiative started after the 2004 Tsunami and aims to protect and increase mangrove forests.

Forests were reduced to 263,000 hectares in 1977, 158,500 hectares in 1990 and shrunk to 80,000 hectares in 2002.

After the successful completion of the first phase, the MFF has now entered the second phase after Pakistan was made a full-time member.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Regional Director Aban Marker Kabraji mentioned that US$100,000 is ready to be released for the project as soon as the guidelines for the disbursement of grants are set.

She highlighted the need to focus on climate change in relation to the mangrove ecosystem, giving examples of successful projects in other countries.

The NCB discussed the strategy plan drawn for Pakistan and looked for different ways to engage the private sector to improve the coastal eco-system.

Many organisations, including the forest and fisheries department of Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistan Navy, DHA Karachi, WWF-Pakistan, Indus Earth Trust attended the meeting. They joined the MFF in the mangroves plantation campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2010.

COMMENTS (1)

A Aldrie Amir | 13 years ago | Reply Glad to know about the increasing global awareness and knowledge on the importance of mangroves. Indus is known as one of the pioneering civilizations in the world and those pioneers did depend on mangroves to survive. Let's conserve and preserve this important ecosystem for the benefit and the survival of our generation, our future generations and their future generations.
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