The tribal community of Balochistan generates about US $0.2 million per year through their innovative environmental conservation efforts, says a book titled 'A Treasure in My Backyard: Suleiman Markhor", launched here on Tuesday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Alvaro Rodriguez, Country Director, UNDP, Naseer Tareen, Founder Torghar Conservation Project and Luc Bellon, Author of the book were present at the launching ceremony of the book. Speaking on the occasion, the author informed the participants that the funds generated through conservation efforts are helping local people, suffering from fatal diseases to meet their medical expenditure.
The funds have also enabled the youth of Torghar to obtain secondary education in near by towns besides helping local employment, as an increasing number of people have become game guards involved in the protection of local wildlife.
While reviewing the book, Bellon informed the audience that the study highlights the linkage between natural resources and the well-being of local communities and will be of great interest to all those who believe sustainable development can occur through community efforts at grassroots level.
Torghar is one of the last remaining natural habitats of the Suleiman Markhor and Afghan Urial in Pakistan. Although, the Markhor has become iconic as Pakistan's national animal, it remains on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN's) list of threatened species.
The Suleiman or Straight horned Markhor is a rare sub-species, indigenous to the Toba Kakar mountains of North-Eastern Balochistan. In 1986 there were just 56 documented Suleiman Markhors and 100 Afghan Urials left in Pakistan, with almost no government efforts to check the illegal hunting of both animals, which are listed as "protected animals" under the Balochistan Wildlife Protection Act of 1974.
A volatile geo-political situation, endemic poverty, drought and frequent inter-tribal warfare, combined with minimal governmental interest in conservationism, posed a formidable challenge for STEP, initially called the Torghar Conservation Project (TCP), when it started working in the area in 1985. However, it did not take long for the STEP to convince local communities about the economic benefits of conservation.
The project has transformed the Pashtun tribes of Torghar from traditional hunters into active conservationists by initiating the concept of regulated trophy hunting and creating economic incentives for communities to undertake conservation efforts. The revenue raised from the trophy hunt permits is used by local communities to finance a wide range of local development and conservation efforts.
In 2000, there were 1,600 Suleiman Markhor and 1,700 Afghan Urial, reported in Torghar, making the area home to the highest concentration of straight-horned Markhor in the world and of Urial in Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, Rodriguez said that "Luc Bellon's book is an important and timely account of a joint collaboration between an NGO and a local community to bring about social change in the face of formidable obstacles."
Bellon is a French anthropologist who has done extensive field research on both Baloch and Pashtun culture, which provides a fascinating account of an NGO called STEP's (Society for Torghar Environmental Protection) efforts to promote conservation and development, with local communities in Torghar.
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