Pakistan

WCS in Pakistan

WCS began work in Pakistan in 1996 to help protect one of the last extensive arid conifer forests in the Western Himalayas.  It is also the main habitat of the endangered woolly flying squirrel and flare-horned markhor.  WCS scientists Peter Zahler and Mayoor Khan have helped increase conservation awareness among the local communities, with the goal of minimizing habitat destruction, especially to the remaining conifer forests.

The Human Aspect
Northern Pakistan has a long history of independence and resistance to influence from outside sources.  Therefore, community-based conservation must be very locally based and staffed to prevent conflict.  WCS has worked closely with local community, education, and religious leaders to build support for conservation and to ensure that our activities are sensitive to local culture.

Threats
Uncontrolled logging enterprises are devastating forests in many valleys while providing little economic return to local communities, and threaten the ability of communities to survive over the long term from loss of this important resource and subsequent soil erosion and aridification. Besides negative effects on wildlife and local communities, deforestation in this area also has a profound effect on other regions of Pakistan; for example, the Tarbela Dam downstream on the Indus River has had its functional life decreased from 50 years to 20 years due to siltation, part of which is blamed on deforestation in the northern mountains. Additionally, overgrazing prevents the regeneration of forests, slowing recovery.
Deforestation is only one threat to the integrity of the ecosystem of Northern Pakistan. Extensive hunting is also a major problem, especially with the recent influx of modern weapons from the conflicts in Afghanistan. Populations of most large animals, including markhor, urial, Asiatic black bear, and monal pheasant have declined precipitously in recent years. There is an urgent need to address this issue through conservation education efforts and community based hunting bans and regulations.

WCS Activities
This multi-year program in northern Pakistan was developed to help protect one of the last extensive arid conifer forests in the Western Himalayas, an area that has been deemed a Global 200 Ecoregion, an Endemic Bird Area of Urgent Biological Importance and a Center for Floral Endemism. It is also the main habitat of the endangered woolly flying squirrel.  The woolly flying squirrel was thought to be extinct due to lack of research and the difficulty associated with navigating its natural habitat. After one was captured in 1994, research began to reveal more about this species. Project efforts to protect the habitat of northern Pakistan included the creation of village and valley conservation organizations, teacher training workshops and conservation curriculum materials distributed to 78 teachers from 13 valleys, and community-wide conservation education meetings (with a generator-powered slide show presentation) held in each valley under consideration, reaching over 2,000 villagers. WCS facilitated agreements to slow or stop logging and hunting in many of these valleys. Efforts in 2001 involved a resource-mapping program. This phase of the project trained community members from each valley to use and fill in maps to create a resource inventory for their valleys. This inventory program was designed to have two results: further develop and focus community interest in resources and sustainable resource use and to create a data base that can be used to develop sensible resource management plans for each valley based on traditional resource rights, with a goal of minimizing habitat destruction, especially to the remaining conifer forests of the area. In 2001 a major multi-year wildlife survey was implemented focused on markhor, urial and other threatened species that covered over 60 valleys in the region. Finally, a project was implemented to create volunteer community wildlife guards for each valley under consideration and to register village conservation committees with the local government to give them legal status.

Important Next Steps

· Continue to arrange and facilitate meetings with the remaining valleys between resource committees and Government Wildlife and Forest Department to officially gain permission for and implement the volunteer community wildlife guard project (was slowed by elections and sectarian strife).
· Continue to focus activities for markhor and urial conservation in the valleys where they can still be found. Includes holding meetings and workshops with local communities on the need for the protection of this highly endangered species and to try to stop or at least minimize negative activities like hunting and extracting gems in areas where urial are still found.
· The Community Conservation Education Project will continue in selected valleys to maintain and more fully develop communities’ attitudes towards resource conservation and remind them of the need to sustainably manage their resources.
· We will continue to arrange training and workshops for the volunteer wildlife guards and resource conservation committees. 
· We will identify some potential valleys as community controlled hunting areas (CCHA) and work with the Government on developing programs in these valleys, including the development of conservation plans.