Islamabad

Pakistan has termed the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Treaty as a direct threat to the endangered species of snow leopard, amid Pakistan has been in its conservation efforts for almost half a decade.

“Snow leopard is angry at Donald Trump for withdrawing from climate change treaty,” the Federal Minister for Climate Change, Mushahidullah Khan said this while addressing the snow leopard summit in Kyrgyzstan. He linked Trump’s withdrawal from treaty as a direct threat to the fragile habitat of this endangered animal.

It is worth mentioning that the Paris climate agreement was established in 2015, during conference in Paris. Every nation signed the accord pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emission. The United States, which has quit the international effort to address global warming, is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China. With this pulling out from Paris agreement on climate change, Washington joined the only two UN member countries ie Nicaragua and Syria, which did not signed up the accord.

Despite Pakistan greenhouse gas emission is less than a percent of global emission, but it is at the seventh place among top 10 countries vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change and global warming.

Khan said that the snow leopard conservation efforts in Pakistan dates back to the early 70s with the government endorsement of provincial wildlife acts. The efforts further picked up in 1990s when the Snow Leopard Trust initiated its interventions in the country. The Government of Pakistan supported and endorsed the Snow Leopard Conservation Strategic Plan in 2007 as part of the implementation of the Snow Leopard Survival Strategy. Since then many conservation organisations like World Wildlife Fund (WWF), International Union for Conservation of nature (IUCN), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development Organisation (BWCDO) started the implementation of the snow leopard conservation agenda in the country by working with the local communities and government departments.

The inception of the Snow Leopard Foundation in Pakistan in 2008 was a milestone that established a solid scientific entity dedicated to work on the snow leopard conservation with the cooperation of stakeholders, including the academia, students, local communities and the provincial wildlife departments.

He further told the global gathering that Pakistan endorsed the global snow leopard and ecosystem protection by developing its national snow leopard ecosystem protection priorities and joined other range countries for achieving the goal of “securing 20 landscapes by 2020”, three of which fall in Pakistan.

He also highlighted some achievements made by the Government of Pakistan for snow leopard conservation efforts in the country. The Government of Pakistan has allocated $4.5 million under the green environment fund-6 cycle for the implementation of national snow leopard ecosystem protection. We are expecting this project be initiated and operational in 2018.

The minister said the landscape management plan of the Karakoram-Pamir Landscape, which is the largest of the three-snow leopard landscapes, is in the final stage and shall be endorsed after review by the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Protection Secretariat. He also highlighted efforts of the Government of Pakistan for youth sensitisation and curbing illegal trade.