Earthquake in Pakistan
Impact upon WWF - Pakistan staff and partner communities

Pakistan was hit by a devastating earthquake ever recorded in its history on October 8, 2005 (Saturday). The Pakistan administered region of Kashmir , and other mountain regions have been badly affected. The extent of damage to life and infrastructure is still to be established. The estimate is that over 500 villages in Kashmir have been flattened, over 30,000 people have lost their lives, and millions have become homeless.

Many national and international relief agencies responded immediately to reach the people in the affected areas. WWF - Pakistan as an organisation, and its staff members in their personal capacities have already started to assist these relief efforts. A lot of difficulty is being faced at the moment due to the lack of proper access to the affected areas, as most of the connecting roads have been damaged or blocked, limiting the supply of doctors, medicines, food and shelter.

Fortunately, no WWF - Pakistan staff has been hurt personally, as per the information we have received so far. There has been some damage to WWF - Pakistan offices, relatives of some of our staff have lost their lives, and homes of some of these staff have been damaged.

Regular updates will be posted on the WWF - Pakistan website, www.wwfpak.org

Details of the most affected areas are provided below:

WWF - Pakistan Muzaffarabad, Kashmir

Muzaffarabad is the capital of Kashmir , and many buildings have been damaged by the recent earthquake. The roof of the first floor of WWF – Pakistan 's rented office in Muzaffarabad collapsed. Some staff had come out of the building when the tremors began and witnessed the damage to the building, luckily no one was hurt.

This is the worst affected WWF - Pakistan office in the country, and some of the staff members have lost their homes and loved ones. Since road and communication links have not been fully established, it is difficult to obtain accurate updated information.

This office coordinates WWF - Pakistan involvement in a GEF project for the Machiara National Park , a protected area within the Western Himalayan Forest G200 Ecoregion. This national park is well known for the important Himalayan forest and associated wildlife such as common leopard, snow leopard, pheasants, black bear and langur .

The local communities with whom WWF - Pakistan interacts in neighbouring the park have also been badly affected.

WWF - Pakistan Ayubia, NWFP

The rented office has not been affected, but homes of some of the staff members have been damaged, and the local communities in the vicinity of the Ayubia National Park have been affected, mostly due to the damage to their homes.

WWF - Pakistan works with the local communities on issues such as medicinal plants, fuel-efficient stoves with the objective of conserving and improving the management of the national park. This park came under a lot of attention in the recent months due to the incidents of common leopard attacks on the local villagers. This area also falls under the Western Himalayan Forest G200 Ecoregion, and is one of the pilot sites of the WWF - UK supported Pakistan Forest Programme initiative.

WWF - Pakistan Abbotabad, Patan, NWFP

The rented offices have not been affected, except that the boundary wall of the office collapsed. Some homes of staff members have been damaged. The local communities in and around the Palas Valley have been affected, mostly due to damage to their homes. This is also within the Western Himalayan Forest G200 Ecoregion. This remote Himalayan forest region is best known for its unique population of the regionally endemic Western Tragopan Pheasant, and also contains population of Musk Deer.

The project is being funded by DfID in partnership with WWF - UK and Birdlife International.

WWF - Pakistan response

We plan to provide support to the WWF - Pakistan staff and project associated local communities. Our priority is to support the staff and communities in the Kashmir region, since they are the worst hit.

We expect to send two persons to Muzaffarabad, along with our first supply of relief goods today or tomorrow. Our staff will be carrying a satellite phone to re-establish regular communication.

We are preparing lists of the affected staff and community persons, and the support needed by them. This will enable us to assist in coordinating with other relief agencies, or directly providing some crucial assistance.

For this purpose, WWF - Pakistan has established donation centres at its main offices where our staff and members will be encouraged to provide in-kind donations of items such as blankets and warm clothing.

In addition, a special fund has been established to receive cash/financial donations. Our staff and supporters are providing their voluntary contributions to this account, and a WWF - Pakistan Relief Coordination Committee will oversee its expenditure to ensure that we meet the high-priority and urgent needs. Those interested in making a financial contribution can send their donations to the following:

WWF-Pakistan…earthquake relief

Account No. (International)

Please remit funds (Using MT100 OR MT103 Customer Transfer Format) to Standard Chartered Bank, 37 Gracechurch Street , London EC3V OBX UK (Swift Code :SCBLUS33XXX Sort Code NO.50.00.00) with instruction for onward credit to Standard Chartered Bank, Karachi (Swift Address SCBLPKKX) AC NO. 05708389001. For ultimate credit to ACCOUNT NO. 01-7927835-90 in the name of "WWF - PAKISTAN " account maintained with Standard Chartered Bank Gulberg Branch Lahore, Pakistan.

Account National

WWF – Pakistan
Account # 08-7952694-38
Standard Chartered Bank
Lahore

The WWF - Pakistan offices receiving in-kind donations are: