On 3 March, World Wildlife Day (WWD) will be celebrated under the theme “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration”.
The Day serves to highlight the conservation status of some of the most critically endangered species of wild fauna and flora to help drive effective solutions.
This has never been more urgent as the world faces a triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution waste. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, more than 8,400 species of wild fauna and flora are critically endangered, while nearly 30,000 more are endangered or vulnerable. Based on these estimates, over a million species could be threatened with extinction.
“When we protect and conserve the planet on which these species live, we safeguard not just their futures, we safeguard ours too,” says United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) Executive Director, Inger Andersen. “So on WWD, let’s commit to a planet where people and animals and nature flourish together.”
One person who has helped project both wildlife and their natural ecosystem is Pakistani researcher Ashiq Ahmed Khan. When he first visited Pakistan’s rugged Sulaiman Mountains in 1982, he was there to study the markhor, a near-threatened goat and Pakistan’s national animal.
On his return visit, the mountains in Balochistan, four years later, though, Khan’s focus shifted from the markhor to the pine forest it called home, which had been decimated by deforestation. “It had been cut,” said Khan. “It was shocking.”
The revelation would lead Khan, 74, who is originally from Peshawar, to launch a campaign to conserve Balochistan’s mountain forests and one of their most recognizable trees, the Chilghoza pine. Today, some 260km2 of forest is protected, much with the help of local residents who were once responsible for felling the trees.
That success is a testament to the ability of communities to band together and revive natural spaces lost to development, said Dechen Tsering, Director of UNEP’s Asia and the Pacific Office.
“Around the world, forests and other natural spaces are being plundered for their resources. But what’s happening in Balochistan shows that there is a better, more sustainable way to benefit from nature,” she said.
Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) projects such as this ensure people adapt and thrive in a changing climate, which are fundamental to UNEP’s work. Globally UNEP works on more than 45 EbA projects, restoring around 113,000 hectares and benefiting 2.5 million people. By protecting ecosystems, UNEP also ensures that animals, such as the markhor have a place to call home.
In other parts of South Asia, UNEP works with partner agencies, such as the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) to increase their reach. Mountain areas are some of the hardest hit by climate change and projects such as Adaptation at Altitude look at how to increase community resilience and adaption to the threat.
Every year, the world loses 10 million hectares of forests – an area the size of the Republic of Korea.
Replanting those forests is a key part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global push to revive the natural world that launched on World Environment Day in June 2021.
Pakistan has launched an ambitious effort to revive its forests. In 2019 the government introduced one of the largest restoration projects in the world, the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami. Its aim is to plant 10 billion trees by 2023.
This is particularly important in Pakistan as, due to a large population, poverty and illegal logging for charcoal and fuel, only 5 per cent of the country has forest cover, against a global average of 31 per cent. That lack of trees causes a host of problems, including flooding, drought, soil erosion and glacial melt.
Creating economic opportunities
In the Sulaiman Mountains of Balochistan, home to the markhor, the Chilghoza was emblematic of Pakistan’s struggles with deforestation. While it produces a highly nutritious and valuable pine nut, it was being felled by locals and used as firewood and for building materials. It was also a victim of local politics; feuding tribes would often cut down their enemies’ trees to deprive them of income.
When Khan joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 1992, it became his mission to protect and restore the forests. He did this in part by helping local farmers build irrigation canals, allowing them to grow cash crops, such as wheat, maize and garlic, which provided an income.
“We had to create opportunities so they wouldn’t need to cut down the Chilghoza,” said Khan. “It took time and we had to work with the communities to win their trust.” Now the trees have been allowed to grow and mature nut yields have increased. The price of Chilghoza nuts is at an all-time high and communities are selling the nuts as far away as China and the Middle East.
The WWF also helped set up and supported Kasa Ghar, a community-based organisation, that worked to sustainably manage the forests, it was so successful that it was awarded the Equator Prize in 2019. The Equator Prize is a highly-valued UN-backed award that rewards outstanding community efforts.
“It is rewarding to see how far the restoration of the Chilghoza has gone,” said Khan, “I am retired now and I can look back with pride on the work I did to restore these forests.”
About UNEP’s Wildlife Campaigns
UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. Read more about UNEP’s wildlife campaigns, Wild for Life and Glowing Gone.
About the United Nations World Wildlife Day:
On 20 December 2013, the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 3 March as World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora. The date is the day of the signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973.
