Taking account of this alarming situation, WWF - Pakistan has initiated a comprehensive, consolidated, and integrated freshwater programme. This programme not only reflects the target driven approach that WWF-Pakistan’s conservation work now takes, but also establishes linkages of the freshwater work with the other five global priorities of WWF: forests, coastal and marine ecosystems, species, toxics and climate change.

OVERALL PROGRAMME VISION

‘To conserve and sustainably manage freshwater habitats in Pakistan to benefit nature and people’

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVE

The specific objective of the programme is to maintain biological diversity, ecological and hydrological processes in the Indus River Basin at the same time providing for sustainable use of freshwater resources, and for sustainable development opportunities for the region. This allows for the programme to look at both the `nature’ beneficiary angle i.e. the habitat and the environmental processes and to look at the people beneficiary angle. The latter allows for poverty reduction and enhancement of economic opportunities to be built into the programme without which the former cannot be conserved.

TARGETS

1. Promote policies that mitigate the primary threats to the maintenance of biological diversity, ecological and hydrological processes in the Indus River Basin.

2. Increase the sustainability of agricultural and industrial productive systems which impact on both water use and local livelihoods.

3. Create and manage a network of protected areas (PA’s) in the Indus River Basin that effectively represents its diversity.

4. Protect and restore viable populations of freshwater and related flagship species and their habitats.

5. Promote environmental education initiatives in the area of freshwater conservation through local, regional, and national initiatives