ISLAMABAD: With the aims to develop community and institutional capacity for certified production of biodiversity-friendly and non-timber products in northern parts of the country, the Ministry of Climate Change is going to launch a project “Mountains and Market Biodiversity and Business in Northern Pakistan”.
Sauces said that the project is aimed to stimulate market demand for these products, thereby creating new economic incentives for conservation. The ministry sources said the forest and wildlife departments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan were the implementation partners in the project while the Global Environment Facility was providing the funding.
The sources said the project area was spread across Hindu Kush, Karakorum and Western Himalayan mountain ranges.
Many globally threatened species are still found there, from the snow leopard and lynx to highly endangered woolly flying squirrel. Although protected areas now cover some 11 per cent of the mountains, threats yet remain to the region’s unique biodiversity due to poverty and limited options for sustainable sources of livelihood.
