World Wide Funds for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-F) hails and lauds suo motu action of Supreme Court of Pakistan on environmental impacts of the proposed "New Murree Development Project."
According to a spokesman of the Fund here on Thursday, the WWF-P and a number of other concerned civil society members have engaged in a couple of meetings with the New Murree Development Authority. They raised concerns over the issue such as the establishment of project was unlikely to mitigate congestion in Murree and the claim by the concerned authorities that 'environment will not be disturbed' was unsubstantiated.
He said, "The proposed area for the construction of this project has been a protected forest for over 100 years, providing water-catchment services beside other benefits of a forest ecosystem to its inhabitants. The area also has important forest cover of Deodar Forest, which was Pakistan's national tree."
"The WWF-P has also reviewed the master plan of New Murree Development Project and gave its comments during the meeting on August 18, voicing its concerns over the issue. Presently, the WWF-P was helping prepare an 'alternate approach' based on a detailed ecological assessment of the Patriata forest focusing on the natural and cultural heritage of the region," he averred.
According to him, it was also developing alternate approaches jointly with various non-governmental organisations like IUCN, Shirkat Gah, Ecotourism Society of Pakistan and Pakistan Architects Association. The WWF-P would extend full support and technical assistance to the Supreme Court on this issue.
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