Mountain Partnership

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Pakistan

Pakistan is the meeting point of three of the world's great mountain ranges; the Karkorams, Himalayas, Pamir and the Hindu Kush. To the north-east is the region of Balistan, a high-altitude desert bisected by the Indus River, home to K2 (the world's second highest peak) and Naga Parbat (classified as the world's most dangerous peak). There are 14 national parks in Pakistan.

Environmental degradation in the Himalayan region is attributable to human intervention and over-use of natural resources. Extensive cultivation, livestock grazing and deforestation leading to soil erosion are devastating many mountain ecosystems and endangering many already rare speciesn such as the snow leopard and the brown bear. Due to its very dry climate, Pakistan also suffers from acute water shortage problems. A recent plan to melt glaciers in order to meet water shortages in Pakistan was strongly criticized by a UN environmental expert. Poverty is widespread in mountain regions, and basic facilities are lacking.

Priority concerns are to control the rapidly increasing deforestation, improve land use systems, develop and implement rangeland management practices, control land degradation, conserve biodiversity, raise public awareness about sustainable mountain development issues and improve the living conditions of mountain people, in part by developing infrastructures (roads, electricity, water, education, health services).

Pakistan focuses strongly on developing tourism, but tourism needs to be managed with care: mountaineering in Pakistan is now reaching saturation levels on available peaks and existing trekking areas are also nearing saturation.

Pakistan has a history of implementing various sustainable mountain development programmes in the north of the country. The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme has been particularly active in northern Pakistan in the field of rural development. A growing network of partners - from governments to UN agencies, major groups and the private sector are working together to ensure long-term action as regards the conservation of mountain environments and the promotion of peace and stability in the mountain regions of the country.

In 1999, the Government of Pakistan, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility (UNDP/GEF), and in collaboration with the World Conservation Union (IUCN), launched the Mountain Areas Conservancy Project (MACP). This community-based project, which is now in its sixth and final year of implementation, is focusing on seven geographically distinct conservancy areas in the Karakorum, Western Himalayan and Hindu Kush mountain ranges in northern Pakistan. Its efforts have resulted in significant  changes in peoples attitudes and practices, from the implementation of grazing management practices, to the conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants through in- and ex-situ conservation practices and the development of joint forest management plans and activities.

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