Pakistan’s unsustainable housing policies and the presence of a timber mafia have emerged as the foremost threats to the country’s green and agricultural lands, posing severe risks to its rapidly diminishing forests and biodiversity. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, environmental experts and stakeholders have called upon the Pakistani government to implement emergency measures for nature conservation, aiming to protect the well-being of the nation’s 260 million people by mitigating the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, and food insecurity.
A national webinar titled ‘The State of Pakistan’s Forests and Biodiversity and the way forward’ was organized by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) on Saturday. The event brought together prominent voices in the field, including ZB Mirza, a renowned biodiversity scientist, and Rab Nawaz, a senior expert on area-based conservation from WWF-International.
Other esteemed speakers included Munir Ahmed, Executive Director of Devcom-Pakistan, Dr. Muhammad Abdullah, Director of the Cholistan Institute of Development Studies (CIDS), Aftab Hussain Bokhari, a conservation expert from AJK, Moazzam Khan, a marine biodiversity expert, Azhar Qureshi, an eco-conservation expert, and Mahrukh Khan, a graduate of the National Defense University.
ZB Mirza highlighted the alarming depletion of Pakistan’s water resources, degradation of forests, and biodiversity despite previous conservation efforts and best practices. Conflicts between stakeholders, particularly timber foresters and ecologists, exacerbate the vulnerability of natural resources. To combat this, sustainable approaches should be adopted, and conflicts need to be resolved to prevent soil erosion, diminished microbial activity, reduced fertility, and the decline of subsoil water and biodiversity.
Rab Nawaz commended Pakistan’s progress in bending the curve of biodiversity loss, citing successful conservation efforts such as the recovery of the Indus Blind Dolphin and the revival of the Kashmir Markhor, Pakistan’s national animal. He stressed the importance of collaboration between government departments, civil society organizations, and communities, urging collective efforts to protect endangered species like the Great Indian Bustard and the Arabian Humpback Whale.
To combat this, sustainable approaches should be adopted, and conflicts need to be resolved to prevent soil erosion, diminished microbial activity, reduced fertility, and the decline of subsoil water and biodiversity.
Munir Ahmed emphasized the detrimental effects of rapid urbanization and unsustainable development on all ecological zones of Pakistan, driven by the influence of unwise and powerful individuals. He called for a nationwide conservation emergency, extending the focus to include AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Dr. Muhammad Abdullah shed light on the challenges faced by the Cholistan desert, such as the burgeoning population, increasing livestock, and the conversion of barren land into permanent housing. He emphasized that this conversion jeopardizes desert species and highlighted the initiatives undertaken by the Cholistan Institute of Desert Studies (CIDS) at the Islamia University of Bahawalpur.
CIDS aims to explore and conserve natural resources while addressing climate change, desert agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and natural hazards through legislation, economics, and social welfare.
Muhammad Moazzam Khan drew attention to the significance of marine biodiversity, which supports Pakistan’s thriving seafood industry, generating approximately 450,000 metric tons of fish and shellfish annually, contributing to export earnings of around US $480 million.
Tourism is a major cause of local environment damage in Pakistan, research
The coastal communities residing along the 1,000 km coastline heavily rely on marine resources, with approximately 10 million people employed in this sector. However, uncontrolled commercial fishing activities, particularly trawling and gillnet use, pose severe threats to marine biodiversity.
These practices lead to habitat destruction and result in the bycatch of endangered species like turtles, sharks, and dolphins. Moreover, pollution originating from the metropolis of Karachi further exacerbates the problem, with the dumping of approximately
