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Success
Story of Wildlife Conservation
As mentioned
in the previous section, trophy
hunting in the Northern Areas has
led to successful cases of wildlife
conservation. Here a specific success
story in this area is presented
as a case study. This case study
was developed by Mr. Darvesh Ali
and Mr. Ishfaq Ahmad of WWF-Pakistan,
Northern Areas and the following
is an excerpt from the full case
study.
The Karambar valley
of Northern Areas lies about 3 hours
drive northwest of Gilgit in the
Ghizer district and covers an area
of 640 sq. km. The people are farmers
and herders and the majority lives
below the poverty line. The valley
is endowed with a variety of flora
and fauna, mineral and water resources.
Among these resources are the endangered
snow leopard and Himalayan ibex.
During state rule
of the Mirs a hunting ban was in
place. But after the abolition of
this rule in the 1970s, illegal
hunting and poaching of wild ungulates
increased to alarming levels due
to lack of administrative controls
and the flow of arms into the valley
from nearby Afghanistan. Such high
levels of hunting for two decades
brought the two species to almost
extirpation.
In the meantime,
the community realized the need
to increase its collective income
and to generate funds for development
activities. This, combined with
increasing awareness about natural
conservation brought by NGOs like
WWF-Pakistan, stimulated the community
to launch a trophy hunting program
in their valley. People from 14
villages of Karambar valley joined
hands to form the Karambar Social
Welfare & Conservation Development
Organization (KSWCDO) in 1996. They
cooperated with the government and
WWF-Pakistan on fulfilling all the
requirements of trophy hunting programs
and got their valley the status
of a Community Controlled Protected
Area which allowed trophy hunting
of the Himalayan ibex.
During the period
1998-2004 the community was issued
10 hunting permits out of which
nine were used, by six Pakistani
and three foreign hunters. The community
has so far earned Rs. 388,400 (~US$6,700).
The income from funds generated
and interest earned is spent on
conservation of the ibex and other
natural resources, on development
projects and admin costs in the
ratio of 55-30-15% respectively.
Most importantly,
the ibex population has now come
back up to higher numbers from about
100 individuals in 1997 to about
800 in 2003. This is partly due
to the Afghan war in 2001 which
pushed the ibex out of there into
this valley. But the trophy hunting
program had a lot to do with this
increase also. If ibex conservation
through this program had not been
in place the ibex from Afghanistan
would not have felt safe to come
here. Plus the program itself has
ensured that indiscriminate hunting
of ibex is not carried out and that
has also pushed up the numbers.
Therefore this is a very successful
case of wildlife preservation by
a community that had shot out wildlife
to the verge of extirpation.
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