Pakistan is confronted with an often overlooked but urgent truth: the biological diversity in the country is besieged. The causes are many: climate change, loss of habitat, over -revitalization and pollution. However, there is a fundamental problem under these threats: We continue to consider the preservation of biological diversity as an external concern and not as an essential part of our national development and community awareness.
This year's topic for the recently observed international day for biological diversity, “part of the plan”, could not be more fitting, especially for Pakistan, where participation and local property are the lack of connections in our preservation. The need is no longer to protect forests and species, but embed the biological diversity in the core of our political decision-making fire, economic and education systems.
In Islamabad I often live over the Margalla Hills, which weigh the city- a microcosm of Pakistan's wider ecological treasure. However, even these protected areas are increasingly threatened by unplanned urban planning, illegal wood strike and insufficient enforcement of environmental regulations. The contradiction is strong: How can we speak of climate adaptation and sustainable development, while our capital does not protect your ecological lungs?
What Pakistan urgently needs is a paradigm shift – one who does not reinterpret the protection as a stress, but as an opportunity to raise communities, to improve the resilience and to build up a new economy that is rooted in sustainability. In my view, the answer lies in the scaling of the CBC models (Community Conservation), which are in the heart of environmental responsibility. These initiatives have already proven their value.
For example, we take the Makran Coastal Conservation Project. By strengthening the local fishermen to use sustainable practices, marine resources were preserved and the livelihood was improved. Similarly, in the snow -covered mountains of Northern Pakistan's shepherds, who once regarded the endangered snow leopard as a threat, thanks to innovative systems that promote livestock losses and promote alternative sources of income such as ecotourism and handlings.
These examples are signposts for the future. Imagine the effects when such municipal maintenance efforts are replicated in rural Sindh, Belutschistan and Punjab. Imagine a Pakistan in which the protection of biological diversity is a synonym for increasing the local economy, the preservation of the cultural heritage and strengthening social cohesion. What is in the way? The reality is that CBC is still exposed to considerable obstacles in Pakistan: lack of awareness, inadequate financing, weak institutional coordination and political myopia. However, these are not insurmountable. The real challenge is conceptual; We have to think fundamentally who is for nature conservation and who should lead it.
The preservation of biological diversity in Pakistan was the area of the organizations and government departments conducted by elite, which are often separated from the people who are most affected by ecological deterioration. We have to break this top-down model and invest in bottom changes. This means that the youthful youth as a biological diversity ambassador, integrate traditional knowledge into modern science and offer microgrants for village-guided eco-projects. It also means using digital tools such as mobile apps for reporting wildlife or AI-powered platforms for the pursuit of the design, democratizing data and designing nature conservation protectors.
In Islamabad, where the political dialogues are common, but the implementation often remains, we have to go ahead with a good example. The biological diversity should be a central pillar in the city's urban planning strategy. Green roofs, rainy gardens and pollinator corridors are not utopian ideas. They are practical, inexpensive solutions that many global cities have accepted. Why can't Islamabad be the biological diversity in South Asia? Why don't you transform every park, school and mosque garden into a micro-habitat that supports the local flora and fauna? This would improve urban resistance to climate junk and combine people again with nature.
Education is the key to this transformation. We have to go beyond unique sensitization campaigns and embed the biological diversity in the curriculum, not as a chapter in a textbook, but as a lived experience. Excursions to wetlands, biodiversity tests in schoolyards and storytelling sessions led by local oldest are the kind of immersive activities that build environmental in a young age. Let us teach our children to name the Indus River Delphin or the Markhor and to understand why their survival is important.
Politics naturally remain an important lever. Pakistan has to align its biological multiple targets with its climate and development agents. This means updating outdated environmental laws, increasing budget assignments for the Ministry of Climate Change and driving the participation of the private sector in biological diverse-friendly projects. Regardless of whether it is green bonds, the restoration of humiliated forests or tax discounts for organic farmers, the government has a number of instruments to build what I would call a natural -positive economy. However, this will only work if civil society, science and local governments are brought into the fold. Too often, biological diversity is seen as the sole responsibility for environmental ministries. In reality, it cuts in every sector: agriculture, water, health, tourism and education.
During this bad situation, I ask my Pakistanian, especially for political decision -makers, young people and the media, to think outside the box. Do not let us introduce our relationship to nature to us as dominators, but as a caretaker. Let us inspire our past from the indigenous wisdom of the communities that have been living in harmony with nature for generations. And let's look with a brave, integrative vision into the future, which does not see biodiversity as a luxury, but as a lifeline.
The missions could not be higher. Biological diversity is not just about tiger and turtles. It is about the systems that maintain life: clean water, fertile soil, breathable air. If we lose the biological diversity, we risk losing ourselves. But if we do it right if we put people at the center of the preservation if we dare to be innovative, and if we focus our guidelines on the needs of the planet, Pakistan cannot appear as a victim of the environmental decline, but as a guide to ecological renewal.
We have the tools. We know that. What we need now is the will to be part of the plan.
The writer is a political analyst and
Researchers with a master's degree in public order from King's College London.