Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

ounding good-quality agricultural land and has
resulted in waterlogging and salinity of a large
area. The Government has initiated the Salinity
Control and Reclamation Project to lower watertables,
but this is a slow and expensive process. The
communities of the region also complain about the
agricultural extension services, for example, the
availability of good quality seed, fertilizer, agriculture
machinery, soil testing advice, and marketing
of the crops. These are not provided on a regular
basis and at appropriate times for small farmers at
the village level. They also raised concerns about
the lack of credit facilities and the fact that they are
unable to access needed funds at appropriate times
(the cropping season) due to the procedural formalities
of financial institutions. Many communities
pointed out that most of the Government assistance
for agriculture has been used by the influential large
land owners, whereas the small farmers receive little
or no benefit from the programmes.
Future efforts should be focused on an integrated
rural development programme based on agriculture
development, extension services training, on-farm
afforestation, and provision of basic services, utilities,
and facilities, with the heavy involvement of local
communities. Cottage industry and local agroindustry
should be promoted in rural areas, with environmental
protection measures included. Health and education
development programmes should be accelerated
to provide wider coverage in rural areas. The capaci-
ty and governance of village-level institutions should
be strengthened and improved to deliver improved
services.
7 . 4 . 2
Mountain Region
P O V E R T Y A L L E V I A T I O N & P O P U L A T I O N 7
This region consists of the mountain areas of the
Malakand and Hazara Division of the province. It is
rich in forests, water, and minerals. Agricultural land
is scarce and limited, and terrace farming is commonly
practiced at a subsistence level. People attached
top priority to the protection of existing forests and
new programmes for reforestation. They gave second
priority to the provision of basic facilities such as
water supply, sanitation, solid waste, street paving,
drainage, and communications. The other principal
issues that emerged were unemployment in the area,
the lack of education and health facilities, pollution of
water resources, and poor governance at the local
level. Because of the ecology of the region, people
are well aware of the importance of wildlife conservation
and protection, and they raised their concerns
about wildlife population decline. The principal issues
raised in the village consultations in this region are
shown in Table 7.6.
Deforestation in the area is the major concern of
the communities in the region, as forests are their
major economic base. The current high rate of timber
extraction by outside contractors, the clearing of hill
ISSUES RAISED IN VILLAGE CONSULTATIONS – MOUNTAIN REGION TABLE
ISSUES NUMBER PERCENT
Forestry conservation 79 32
Provision of basic facilities 56 23
Poverty alleviation (unemployment & agricultural development) 43 18
Pollution abatement 19 8
Education coverage 18 7
Health services 12 5
Poor governance 9 4
Wildlife conservation 4 1.5
Others 4 1.5
7.6
SARHAD PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION STRATEGY 75