More national parks to be established till 2023

Islamabad: The number of national parks in the country would be increased up to forty-five till 2023 under the Protected Areas Initiative to improve the forest cover, protect wildlife, and address climate change threats.

According to the details, Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the climate change ministry to sort out modalities and complete spadework to increase the number of national parks especially in the high-altitude areas.

The initiative is aimed at preserving the depleting forest cover and dwindling wildlife habitats across the country that would cost around Rs2,400 million.

It will be supported with the launch of Pakistan’s first institutional ‘National Parks Service’ which will protect and conserve them as biodiversity reserves and wildlife habitats.

The funding line for the ‘Protected Areas Initiative’ has been secured with funds already earmarked by the government, of which 92 per cent is targeted to be spent on nature jobs and increasing livelihoods through the engagement of indigenous communities living within these nature reserves.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said when this government came to power in 2018, the protective areas coverage stood at 12 per cent and it now stands at 13 per cent, adding “The objective of establishing national parks is to expand the protected areas coverage to at least 15 per cent of the total area by 2023.”

“We will have proper management plans, legislative interventions as well as standardized eco-infrastructure designs to move forward in this direction,” he said. He said they would link this initiative globally by getting at least seven leading national parks registered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ‘Green List of Protected Areas’, which accords the gold standard for nature protection.