Zubair Qureshi
Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) is taking a holistic view of mitigating the adverse impacts on climate, and for that purpose has set up a Working Group (WG) on ‘Silk Route Ecologically Responsible Tourism and Preservation of Natural Resource Programme’ with the Aga Khan Cultural Service-Pakistan (AKCS-P) as its Secretariat.
The purpose of the WG is to prepare a multipronged strategy and design action plans that preserve the natural resources through mitigation against the adverse impact of climate change, the consequences of mass tourism and uncontrolled infrastructure development.
Malik Amin Aslam, Adviser to the PM on Climate Change, chaired the virtual 4th meeting of the WG on 19th of November 2020. Participants included the MoCC, the Secretaries of Forest and Tourism Government of Gilgit Baltistan, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), AFD, ADB and IUCN and Civil Society members such as the Himalayan Wildlife Foundation (HWF), and Serendip.
Jurjen van der Tas, Director Partnerships and Development Aga Khan Trust for Culture made a presentation on the multi-year programme for Ghizer district which is home to two parks, numerous rivers and streams is spread over 10,000 square kilometers with an estimated population of 120,000. Ghizer had earlier been chosen in February 2020 as the First Zone of Special Value (ZSV1) with Astore and Shigar the other ZSVs.
Malik Amin Aslam emphasized that it was all important to utilize the coming five months of winter and start the implementation of the programme in the field.
