KARACHI, July 9: Work on two pilot projects aimed at combating land degradation and desertification will be launched with the technical and financial support of the United Nation Development Programme and the Global Environmental Facility in two districts of Sindh soon.

The two projects, with seven others meant for different districts of Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan, are part of the ‘Sustainable land management’ programme to be implemented in seven years at a cost of $17.1 million coming from the government of Pakistan, the GEF and the UNDP.

Sources privy to the projects said that Pakistan, like many other developing countries, faced the negative impact of climate change and extreme weather events, which extended beyond land degradation and desertification.

Deforestation, soil erosion, water logging, salinity, decreased land productivity and loss of dry land’s biodiversity are some of the problems that had threaten ecosystems and essential ecosystem services for many years and will continue to do so.

It was further said that the expansion of deserts and reduced land productivity would increase rural poverty with water scarcity, frequent droughts, flash floods and mismanagement of land resources contributing to the problem and as such there was a need for an effective sustainable land management.

The three parties have joined hands to overcome some barriers like the limited institutional capacity, lack of funds, limited knowledge on causes and consequences of land degradation, the source added.

Now under the joint project in question, which will be implemented in two phases in seven years, the institutional capacity will be strengthened and enabling policies created to meet the challenges. Phase I extends to two years with a total cost of $4.6 million and its successful implementation will lead to another investment of $12.5 million with most of it coming from the UNDP and the GEF to facilitate the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the National Action Programme to combat desertification and mitigate the impact of drought in the country.

The programme officer of the UNDP, Abdul Qadir, told Dawn that the sustainable land management project followed an integrated, cross–sectoral and participatory approach, which required a long-term commitment to ensuring sustainable and far-reaching benefits.

In Phase I, the focus would be on addressing policy, institutional and knowledge barriers through targeted capacity building and implementation of nine pilot projects in 10 districts of Pakistan — three in Balochistan, two in Sindh, two in the NWFP and two in Punjab —while Phase II would focus on upscaling project interventions to the larger landscape building on the lessons learnt and best practices tested under Phase I.

Mr Qadir said the project had started in January and after some team mobilisation works it would be in place in some areas of Tharparkar and Badin districts as well in a month or two.

At Tharparkar work would be undertaken for the retention and harvesting of rainwater and its possible use for livestock, agriculture and domestic purposes, while at Badin the impact of seawater intrusion would be studied and ways would be found for change of land uses, the UNDP officer said.