A number of government and non-government organizations like the Northern Areas Forest Department, WWF-Pakistan, IUCN Pakistan and AKRSP have been working in the field of Natural Resource Management (NRM) and a number of studies and surveys in the Northern Areas have been conducted in the past. Despite some efforts to compile the existing information like the Northern Areas Strategy for Sustainable Development (NASSD), there is still a need for scanning through the data available, compiling it and putting it in one place so that future NRM interventions are made easier and successful. Moreover WWF-Pakistan Northern Areas is moving towards a program phase of the Northern Areas Conservation Program (NACP) for which reliable information is needed to design implementable and realistic interventions for sustainable NRM. Keeping these needs in mind the NACP project under its extension phase is going to first compile all the existing relevant information and data in the fields of forests (including rangelands), medicinal plants, wildlife, freshwater and climate change.

The current report covers forests, wildlife, medicinal plants, freshwater and climate change sectors of the study. Based on the existing information and needs of WWF-Pakistan Northern Areas for future program phase development, gaps in the data have been identified through a participatory approach and recommendations have been given.