KARACHI: UNDP may give $450m to combat desertification
KARACHI, July 2: The United Nations Development Progra-mme (UNDP) plans to provide $450 million for capacity development and increase in the performance of individuals, institutions and organisations in Pakistan to combat desertification and address climate change and biodiversity issues in line with the multilateral environmental agreements the country has ratified in 1994 and 1997.
This was said to participants of a two-day consultative workshop that began on Wednesday. The event was attended by representatives of various public and private sector organisations, NGOs, academic and research institutions and the media to identify the country-level priorities and needs for capacity building to protect the local as well as global environment with special reference to the three Rio de Janeiro conventions — the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Pakistan had signed the UNCBD in June 1992 and ratified it on July 1994. It signed the UNFCCC in 1992 and ratified it in June 1994, while the UNCCD was signed by it in October 1994 and ratified in February, 1997. But it was noted by the speakers and participants of the workshop, organised under a project of the federal ministry of environment, that the country still needed to go a long way as far as the legal instruments, implementing mechanisms and authorities, political commitment, mass awareness, education and knowledge of students and their trainers, and coordination between various departments of the government at the district, provincial and federal levels with regard to environmental betterment measures were concerned.
A national project manager of the UNDP, Naufil Naseer, said that about 150 countries of the world had already undertaken the national capacity self-assessment (NCSA) exercise introduced in 2003, while in the case of Pakistan it was hoped that the assessment project launched in June 2007 would be concluded in October 2008.
He said it was considered appropriate to build the capacity of the country while the three Rio conventions on biodiversity, climate change and desertification were in different stages of implementation.
Final report due
Speaking on behalf of the project executer, Mohammad Zafar Iqbal, NCSA team leader, said that similar workshops had also been held in a couple of other cities of Pakistan and after the conduct of such workshops in three to four other cities of the country, a final report would be prepared for the formulation of a national capacity action plan envisaging various follow-up projects and identification of priority actions, cross-cutting issues and possible synergies, the time-frame, possible cross funding, responsibilities and means of monitoring the implementation and evaluation of outcomes and impacts.
He observed that in a situation where Pakistan’s capacity levels to implement the multilateral agreements on the environment were limited, there was a dire need to ensure national ownership and comprehensive participation of stakeholders to overcome environment-related challenges.
Performance not up to the mark
The secretary of the Sindh environment and alternative energy department, Mir Hussain Ali, said that the monitoring and regulatory instruments of the government had been unable to perform up to the mark and ensure the sustainable development as those were faced with inadequate capacity problems. He said he hoped that the provincial environment department would be considered a focal point in the process of addressing environmental issues and execution of relevant projects, and efforts would also be made to strengthen it.
Naeem A. Mughal, director, and Waqar H. Phulpoto, assistant director, of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), Iftikhar Durrani, associated with the NCSA project, and representatives of some NGOs and government departments also spoke.
Before going into groups to discuss the status of individuals, institutions and systems and to suggest actions for improvement under the three theme areas of the project, speakers largely criticised some development authorities for being indifferent to environmental issues and allowing destruction of the coastal belt of Karachi in the garb of residential and commercial development, pollution of seawater and dumping of waste, industrial effluent and sewage into the sea through the Malir and Lyari rivers.
It was also noted that the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council, headed by the prime minister, had been failing to perform adequately and never met over the past five years. The absence of representatives of the cantonment boards, the DHA and the city district government of Karachi, research institutions and other relevant government departments was badly felt during the workshop.
The groups, while furnishing their recommendations, stressed the need for avoiding duplication of environmental projects, setting up of a mechanism for enhanced coordination among the line departments for monitoring of anti-environmental development, contraveners of the law, and a system of prosecution and punishment even at the district and tehsil levels.
The groups felt that there was a need to work on an emergency basis in the fields of education, training, awareness, experience sharing, governance, management, technology adaptation, and finance, in addition to review the existing legal provisions related to the environment and conservation.
It was also suggested that the survey of protected dry land, islands and forest areas should be conducted to re-label the environmentally sensitive areas and know the problems of biodiversity conservation and natural resource management.