Participatory Management & Development of Central Karakorum National Park, Gilgit-Baltistan
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| Short Form | CKNP |
| Duration | July 2007 – June 2012 |
| Funded By | Provincial Government of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan |
| Geographic Focus | District Skardu, Ghanche, Gilgit and Hunza/Nagar |
| Thematic Focus | Protected Area Management |
| Purpose | To protect rare and endangered species and manage the fragile mountain ecosystems and tourism, for long term socio-ecological development of the area. |
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Brief Description: The Central Karakorum National Park notified by the Government of Pakistan in 1993, is the perhaps the largest National Park of the country (approx. 10,000 sq km plus 7,500 sq km buffer zone), characterized with diverse and fragile mountain ecosystems. The park is internationally famous for K2 worlds’ second highest peak, Glaciers, Lakes and other tourist attractions, rich biodiversity, and high ethnic cultural diversity. The Park, somehow remained least focused till the recent past, when Northern Areas Administration realized the need for scientific management of its depleting natural heritage by conceptualizing a project titled “Participatory development and management of CKNP” under a contract arrangement with WWF - Pakistan, followed by a collaborative implementation mechanism involving partners like WWF, IUCN through HKKH Partnership for ecosystem management project, and Ev-K2-CNR funded Karakorum Trust project, for the respective activity components. The project provides for but not restricted to integrated and participatory planning, implementation and evaluation approaches to ensure sustainable development and tangible conservation of park’s resources for improved livelihoods of the dependent communities in the buffer zone areas with the main thrust on promotion and development of eco, adventure and cultural tourism in the area. The Park is acutely deficient in terms of vegetative cover, which is posing greatest threat to Biodiversity and livelihoods of the resident communities, living in the buffer zone. The estimated forest cover is fairly varying, ranging from 12% in Gilgit to less than 0.3% in Skardu and Ghanche districts. However, pastures and alpine meadows are about 20% of the total area. Major portion of the Park comprises of glaciers, vast scree slopes, rangelands and snow capped Rocky Mountains, and thus a very meager area (1%) is available for subsistence agriculture. The traditional farming style is agric-pastoral pattern that is not much yielding under dry desert temperate agro climatic conditions. CKNP supports a great variety of fauna, including 12 species of mammals, 23 species of reptiles, 6 species of amphibians, 17 species of native fish and a wide array of floral species, which are yet not identified and documented. Majority of the flora and fauna species, like Junipers, Vibernum, Snow leopard, Astore Markhor, Ladakh urial and Musk deer are endangered and endemic to the Central Karakorum highlands. Approximately, a population of 113,000 souls, belonging to nine different ethnic groups is living in 230 villages, in the peripheral areas of the park. Majority of this population is characterized with subsistence farming, mining and livestock herding. A significant number of youth living in comparatively busier tourism hotspots are engaged in tourism sector, working as high altitude porters, guides, cooks and trekking leaders. The CKNP is the largest protected area present in the Karakorum Range of Pakistan. Since many years unmanaged tourism activities coupled with unsustainable exploitation of natural resources by the tourists, tour operators and buffer zone communities, have been putting tremendous pressure on the scarce and scattered natural resource base of the park. |
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Click here for glimpses of the project’s achievements |
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Focal/Contact Person (s) for WWF – P’s Component: |
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Mr. Babar Khan |
Rehmat Ali |
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