United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has established a five million dollars Mountain Area Conservation Fund (MACF) to provide sustainable financing to local communities for environmental protection and the conservation of bio-diversity in the four mountain area conservancies of Nanga Parbat, Gojal, Trimichir and Qashqar in northern areas and NWFP.
The 10.5 million dollars fund was established under Mountain Areas Conservancy Project, 7-year ago which are joint venture of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Environment.
The board of directors of the fund met here on Thursday in Islamabad under the chairmanship of the Secretary Environment Javaid Hassan Ally.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the fund would continue assistance of the project initiated since 1999. The MACF will be of great benefit to the country in the long term as the mountain areas contribute considerably to the national wealth.
Initial funding of 1.5 million dollars has been provided by GEF and 0.75 million dollars by UNDP. Contributions from the federal government, government of NWFP and administration of northern areas of 0.25 million dollars each have already been committed.
Arif Alauddin, Environment Chief UNDP said that fund is a unique example of how to provide stable funding for conservation activities undertaken by local communities which are de-linked from government budget cycles.
It will also help support law enforcement activities to ensure enforcement of environmental protection regulations agreed between the local people and the government departments responsible for monitoring of development activities. The fund will also cover costs of technical assistance to communities including awareness raising and environmental education.
The board of directors also adopted a company seal and appointed Dr Muhammad Khurshid as Company Secretary and Dr Bashir Wani (IG Forests) as the Chief Executive of the Mountain Area Conservation Fund.
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