Pakistan Navy has launched Mangroves Plantation Campaign in the Coastal Areas of Sindh and Balochistan provinces.

[ghazi52]

Pakistan Navy has launched Mangroves Plantation Campaign in the Coastal Areas of Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Commander Coast, Vice Admiral Zahid Ilyas graced the occasion as Chief Guest and inaugurated Pakistan Navy Mangroves Plantation Campaign 2021 by planting mangrove sapling at Port Bin Qasim AOR.

Mangroves are vital to coastal ecosystem, prevention of sea intrusion and sustainment of marine life. Being a major stakeholder of the maritime domain and realizing the importance of mangroves for marine life, Pakistan Navy has taken a major initiative to revive mangrove forests all along the coast. Realizing the importance of mangroves forests in combating pollution, countering coastal erosion and providing a number of economic and financial opportunities to coastal communities, Mangroves Plantation Campaign is part of PN environmental protection program under which Pakistan Navy has planted 07 million mangroves from Shah Bandar to Jiwani with the collaboration of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Sindh and Balochistan Forest departments.

On this occasion, Chief of the Naval Staff in his message highlighted the challenges of sustainability and existence mangroves forests are facing. He emphasized that covered area of mangroves forests has decreased significantly over the period due various factors such as reduction in fresh water supply, marine pollution, coastal erosion, mangroves cutting etc. Therefore, requirement of new plantation as well as preservation/ protection of existing mangroves forests needs to be undertaken. Naval Chief in his message underscored the significance of PN Mangroves Plantation Campaign to achieve the goal of developing ‘Green Coastal Belt’. He urged that the plantation campaign will have wide reaching and positive outcomes through sustainable efforts. Improving the health of the environment will ultimately contribute to reducing the risk of local and national disasters through better flood management and protection, sustainable livelihood, ensuring food security, impacts of climate change and raising sea levels.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the mangrove plantation ceremony was attended by limited number of officials from Sindh and Balochistan Forest Departments and reps of IUCN.

 

[ghazi52]

Message from Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi on the Occasion of Mangroves Plantation Campaign 2021

 

[aziqbal]

Great but is this the job of the Navy or the various environmental agencies or both

 

[araz]

Great but is this the job of the Navy or the various environmental agencies or both

There has been a lot of talk about the devastation and environmental damage caused by the mangroves destruction in that area. I am not aware of any defence related implications which has caused the PN to act. This has been on the cards for quite some time so in general a good step.
A

 

[denel]

There has been a lot of talk about the devastation and environmental damage caused by the mangroves destruction in that area. I am not aware of any defence related implications which has caused the PN to act. This has been on the cards for quite some time so in general a good step.
A

I would have considered this to be a concerted effort by environmental ministry and local authorities plus water management specialists.

 

[ghazi52]

SAVING SINDH’S TREES OF LIFE

Shazia Hasan
April 11, 2021 -

“Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish.”
― Munia Khan, poet, writer, editor




Trees sustain life. They give us the air we breathe; the shade we sit under. But many trees do a lot more than just that. The Indus Delta’s mangrove forest ecosystem, for example, supports various life forms.

These dense trees, that protect us from storms, cyclones and tsunamis, are also home to different kinds of marine life including fish, shrimp and crabs, and several species of birds such as pelicans, flamingoes, kingfishers, cranes and even ducks. The trees also serve as the feeding grounds for tropical birds that feed on the fish, insects and plankton along the mangroves.

Yet, the story of the mangrove cover around Pakistan’s coast, particularly the coast of Sindh, has been a sad one until now. A report titled ‘Mangroves of Pakistan: Status and Management’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) quotes a 1966 study that found that 249,486 hectares in the Indus Delta were occupied by mangroves. In the early 1980s, estimates of mangrove coverage ranged from about 250,000 to 283,000 hectares, the IUCN report says. But in the early 1990s, this number fell to approximately 160,000 hectares. “The reductions in silt and freshwater flows from the river Indus have made the environment much harsher for the mangroves,” the report continues.

The reduction in fresh water flowing downstream of Kotri began after the construction of dams and barrages. Indeed, the bureaucracy’s unwillingness to understand the importance of mangroves contributed to the decline of the forests. Many bureaucrats continue to consider any fresh water flowing into the sea — essential for mangrove forests — as simply wasted water.

Many writers, researchers, activists and journalists have utilised sheets upon sheets of paper to bring to light how trees are being cut for wood (the irony), and how the mangroves are vanishing, as the desire to ‘create’ land trumps the will to protect the inhabitants of said land. One example of this is the contentious KPT Housing Society, for which 250 acres of land, where mangroves once stood, were ‘reclaimed’.

The provincial government has been publicising a ‘gift’ of over one billion mangrove trees for the people of Sindh. But local fisherfolk communities and many environmental activists remain sceptical of the mangrove plantation initiatives and the promises that come with them. Can all the stakeholders work together towards a greener future?

The history of the mangroves conflict has also been a violent one, depending on who is telling it. In 2011, two environmental activists, Haji Abu Bakar and Abdul Ghani, were allegedly ‘drowned’ in Kakapir village by ‘land grabbers’. A decade later, Abu Bakar and Ghani’s colleagues at the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) maintain that the men had started an awareness raising movement against the illegal cutting down of mangrove trees by the land grabbers, before they met their unfortunate fate.
The colleagues of the departed say that the men were kidnapped, tied and wrapped in fishing nets, and thrown into the sea. Fishermen are the best of swimmers, the late fisherfolks’ friends say, but with limbs tied and weights pulling them to the depths of the ocean, the men did not have a chance. The police’s findings did not align with the fisherfolks’ version of events. The investigation concluded that the men had drowned. “But fishermen do not drown easily,” PFF chairman Mohammad Ali Shah says. “Even our children can teach you how to swim.”

The fishermen say that Abu Bakar and Ghani’s dead bodies served as a warning to all those who had anything to say about the destruction of the mangroves for several years to come. They appear to have succeeded to some extent. Many in the fisherfolk community still speak about fear of the ‘mangrove mafia’, the ‘timber mafia’ and the ‘land mafia’.

Meanwhile, according to these fisherfolk, these ‘mafias’ have continued to operate, albeit a bit more carefully. Over time, they’ve gotten better at not getting caught, the men observe. The fisherfolk allege that the various ‘mafias’ leave the trees in the front intact and cut the trees hidden from sight. They maintain the illusion of the mangroves standing tall but, in reality, the forests are hollow. The trees at the front are not enough to provide protection against sea storms, the fisherfolk allege; this facade is only protecting the handiwork of thieves.

Read more..................................

SAVING SINDH’S TREES OF LIFE

The provincial government has been publicising a ‘gift’ of over one billion mangrove trees for the people of Sindh. But local

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[ghazi52]

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