Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

e focused on an integrated rural development programme
based on agriculture development, extension
services training, farm forestry, and provision of
basic services, utilities, and facilities, with the heavy
involvement of local communities. Cottage industry
and local agro-industry will be promoted in rural
areas, with environmental protection measures included.
Health and education development programmes
accelerated to provide wider coverage in rural areas.
And the capacity and governance of village-level
institutions strengthened and improved to deliver
improved services.
The Mountainous Region
This region consists of the mountain areas of the
Malakand and Hazara Division of the province. Here
the pace of development has been slow. Attention
needs to be paid to the provision of basic services
and utilities such as clean water, drainage, sanitation,
health, and education through integrated rural
development programmes. To create local employment,
mineral resources and the potential for ecotourism
require greater exploration. The institutional
capacity at the local level must be strengthened and
partnership programmes with local communities and
NGOs encouraged, to increase the capacity for sustainable
management of mountain natural resources.
The Southern Region
Special attention is required for the improvement of
socio-economic conditions in the southern region of
the NWFP stretching over the Kohat, Bannu and D.I.
Khan Divisions. It is essential that the Social Action
Programme give priority to this region, to improve
basic services and utilities and clean drinking water.
Greater community involvement is required in all
development programmes to increase the capacity of
Government institutions to deliver services. All development
programmes require income generation
schemes that draw on the agricultural potential of the
region. Emphasis needs to be given to upgrading
and improving the existing infrastructure system.
District Strategies
Good governance and poverty alleviation demand
devolution of authority to promote decentralised plan-
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y
ning and to effectively utilise local resources to
address local problems. The SPCS envisages districtlevel
conservation strategies—pilot strategies are to
be developed in response to local needs.
Unsustainable Population Growth
Natural resources are not limited, and there has to be
a balance between their use and consumption. The
potential for the resources of the NWFP to support the
province’s increasing population is not encouraging.
The population growth is squeezing the availability of
space for natural resource development as well as
increasing the demand on available resources. This is
having many adverse environmental impacts and is
increasing the pressure on other resources.
However, the trend in the NWFP is to have large
families. This is partly because it is still a conservative
society, where the men deal with the outside world,
while women are restricted to housekeeping; and partly
because sons are a matter of pride and economic
security. Attempts to have a lot of sons generally lead
to large families. Women have mostly not been educated
and are permitted only limited mobility. A change
is in order. But care must be taken to respect local culture
and traditions in effecting this change.
The SAP population-planning programme places a
strong emphasis on family planning services being
made available through the village health worker or
through the traditional birth attendant at the mohallah
(neighbourhood) level. This needs to be continued
and the family planning system needs to be made a
part of the health system for each of the facilities used
by women. Equally important, awareness and education
should be provided by village health workers, so
that family planning is discussed openly, especially
where men congregate.
Women & Development
Women’s work has always entailed a closer relationship
with nature. Women are often ‘naturally’ privileged
environmental managers, who over generations
have accumulated specific knowledge about
natural processes that is different than that acquired
by men. Therefore, women and development are as
inseparable as environment and development. Most
women in the NWFP live in rural areas, are illiterate,
SARHAD PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION STRATEGY xv