Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y
mitment by the government and people of the NWFP
to move forward with an effective programme of sustainable
development.
The SPCS is the principal plan for implementing
the National Conservation Strategy in the NWFP. It is
both a comprehensive statement of provincial aspirations
for sustainable development and a commitment
package containing major policy statements, lawreform
initiatives, structural improvements and bold
new programmes. With its strong emphasis on
changing the administration’s operating style, the
SPCS will open up government priority-setting to the
people in an unprecedented manner.
The SPCS 1995-98 is the first generation of the
strategy which, by design, is innovative, exploratory
and time-specific. It will be reviewed in 1998 to coincide
with the launch of the Ninth Five-Year Plan for
Pakistan. By then there will be a far better understanding
of the actual efficacy of many of the SPCS
processes, systems and policies. It is also likely that
certain priorities will have changed, and portions of
it may well have become outdated—some would
have been implemented while others may be judged
unviable.
In a sense then, while the SPCS 1995-98 reflects
today’s priorities and is as complete as currently possible,
it remains a flexible, evolving plan to achieve
sustainable development in the NWFP. In this regard,
the SPCS is subject to a legal requirement, set out by
the proposed NWFP Environment Act, that the strategy
is reviewed and rewritten every five years. This
will be done by the Planning, Environment and
Development Department of the Government of
NWFP, in conjunction with other departments
involved in the implementation of the Strategy.
The neglect and abuse of the environment over
past decades has come to pose a formidable challenge,
and the large number of complex problems
cannot be addressed in a short period of time. This
is partly because the NWFP is a resource-deficient
province, and donors are unlikely to fund all that
must be done. The SPCS has, therefore, adopted a
prioritized agenda for implementation, in which it
concentrates initially on activities which can bring
about the greatest improvements for the smallest
i n v e s t m e n t s .
xii SARHAD PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION STRATEGY
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WHAT THE SPCS IS ALL ABOUT
The Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy aims to
secure the economic, social and ecological wellbeing
of the people of the NWFP through the conservation
and sustainable development of the province’s
natural resources.
Its specific objectives are:
■ treatment of the fundamental social problems that
are the underlying cause of environmental degradation;
■ conservation, rehabilitation, and sustainable
development of natural resources such as forests,
water, soil and wildlife;
■ protection of the living environment from air,
water and soil pollution;
■ development of high-quality environmental protection
mechanisms including appropriate legislation,
development planning mechanisms, environmental
quality standards, and participatory and regulatory
institutional arrangements;
■ improvement of the institutional and financial
capacity of the NWFP Government to achieve sustainable
development of the province’s natural
resources;
■ protection and conservation of the cultural heritage
of the NWFP;
■ improvement of community and individual involvement
in decision making about natural resources
and the environment; and
■ raising of public awareness and understanding of
conservation and sustainable development.
These objectives have been formulated using the
following guiding principles:
■ conservation and sustainable development of the
NWFP’s resources are essential to human wellbeing;
■ essential ecological processes and life-support systems
must be maintained;
■ genetic and biological diversity of plants, animals
and ecosystems must be conserved and promoted;
■ economic development and environmental management
must be undertaken together;
■ community development organizations and the
private sector, are indispensable to finding practi-