Aving recently observed the international day for biological diversity this year and confronted Pakistan with an often overlooked but urgent truth: the biological diversity in Pakistan is threatened. The orchestra of nature falls silent from the snow -covered peaks in the north to the mangrove forests that line our south coast. The causes are many: climate change, habitat loss, overexposure and pollution. These obvious threats are a fundamental problem: We continue to consider the preservation of biological diversity as an external concern and not as an essential part of our national development and well -being.
This year's topic, part of the plan, could not be more suitable, especially for Pakistan, where participation and local property are the lack of connections in the census. The need is no longer to protect forests and species in isolation, but also embed the biological diversity in the core of our systems for political decision, economy and education.
We live in Islamabad and often be amazed at the Margalla Hills in which the city weighs – a microcosm of the ecological treasure that Pakistan holds. However, even these protected areas are increasingly threatened by unplanned urban planning, illegal logging and poor 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. We do not have to re -present the preservation as a burden, but as an opportunity to raise communities, to improve the resilience and to build up a new economy that is rooted in sustainability. The answer lies in the scaling of the CBC models (Community Conservation), which provide the local population in the heart of environmental responsibility. Such initiatives have already proven their value. For example, we take the Makran Coastal Conservation Project. By strengthening the local fishermen to involve sustainable practices, not only sea resources were preserved, but the living documents were also improved. Similarly, in the snow-covered mountains of Northern Pakistan's shepherds, who once regarded the endangered snow leopard as a threat, are thanks to innovative systems that offer compensation for livestock losses and promote alternative sources of income such as eco-tourism and handicrafts.
These examples are not only success stories, but a guide for the future. Imagine the effects when such communal 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. These are not insurmountable barriers. The real challenge is conceptual; We have to think fundamentally, for which nature conservation is located and who should lead it.
Biodiversity is not just about tiger and turtles. It is also about the systems that maintain life: clean water, fertile soil and breathable air. If we lose the biological diversity, we risk losing ourselves.
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 micro contracts for village projects. It also means using digital tools such as mobile phone apps for reporting wildlife or AI-powered platforms to pursue the design in order to democratize data and make protection into a participatory process.
In Islamabad, in which 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 parking, school and mosque lawn into a micro-habitat that supports the local flora and fauna? Such actions not only improve urban resistance to climate sash, but also combine people with nature, which is painfully lacking in our increasingly sensing life.
Education is the key to this transformation. We have to go beyond unique sensitization campaigns and embed the biological diversity in the curricula, not as a chapter in a textbook, but as a lived experience. Excursions to wetlands, biodiversity tests in schoolyards, storytelling sessions led by local oldest are the kind of immersive activities that build environmental levels at a young age. Let us teach our children not only to name the indus flow of dolphin or the Markhor, but also 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 increasing the participation of the private sector in biological diversity -friendly projects. Regardless of whether it is green bonds to finance the restoration of humiliated forests or tax discounts for organic farmers, the government has a number of instruments available to build what one would describe as a “natural -positive economy”.
All of this will only work if civil society, science and local administrations are brought into the fold. Too often, biological diversity is seen as the sole responsibility of the environmental protection departments. It has to be cut through every sector: agriculture, water, health, tourism and education.
We ask the Pakistaners with other political decision -makers, young people and the media to think outside the box. Let us not imagine our relationship with nature as dominators, but as a caretaker. Let us inspire our past by 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. Biodiversity is not just about tiger and turtles. It is also about the systems that maintain life: clean water, fertile soil and breathable air. If we lose the biological diversity, we risk losing ourselves. If we do it right; When we focus on people at the center of 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 an environmental decline, but as a leader of ecological renewal.
We have the tools. We know that. What we need now is the will to be part of the plan.
The author is a political analyst and researcher with a master's degree in public policy from King's College in London.