Project Detail

Baltoro Environmental Protection Programme

The Baltoro Environmental Protection Programme is an effort in collaboration with the concerned authorities and local community participants to prevent pollution of the Baltoro Glacier region by instituting a simple yet permanent infrastructure along the trekking route. The objective behind the establishment of designated campsites is to restrict human activity and its attendant problems within a controlled parameter. This will facilitate the local population to control and monitor outside human intervention and prevent any and all activity inconsistent with the natural habitat effectively. Pollutant materials will remain within a designated zone and not pose a threat to the biodiversity. Collection and disposal of the same will be the responsibility of the local community. Containment of hazardous material and toxic waste (batteries) will also be confined to a designated area under the direct supervision and control of the local community. Injury and ingestion by the careless disposal of waste to the ungulates in the region poses a serious threat to their already endangered status. A majority of this region is prime habitat for the endangered snow leopard. If there is a sharp decline in the ungulate population then this predator will come into conflict with the region?s domestic animals.

Within this broad mountain ecosystem, a short distance results in large changes based on altitude, aspect, geology and soils, giving rise to a wide variety of microclimates and biodiversity. Unmonitored human pressure in this region poses a direct threat to the ecosystem and the biodiversity. The mountain ecosystem cannot be subjected to irresponsible human activity and mismanagement. GEF is therefore approached for assistance in this regard in the faith that the objectives of the Project are aligned with those of GEF and that eligibility for a small grant is determined on the basis of qualification, responsibility and ability.

The underlying mission of the project is the sustainable conservation of biodivestiy. This includes the protection and mangement of the Baltoro's wildlife resources. MGPO will develop a mechanism to establish a well-managed campsites that will provide base for building a knowledge base on the sustainable use of biodiversity in the area.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

MOUNTAIN AND GLACIER PROTECTION ORGANIZATION

Country:

Pakistan

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

Phase 2

Grant Amount:

US$ 50,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 1,170,039.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

Project Number:

PAK/02/38

Start Date:

12/2002

End Date:

6/2004

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Notable Community Participation

Local community will be involved to manage the Baltoro route, wildlife viewing and wildlife harvesting.

Gender Focus

Role of women is tacit one, largely confined to promoting environmental awareness among women as primary users of natural resources.

Capacity - Building Component

The Ministries of Environment and Tourism and the local Baltistan administration whose institutional capacity will be strengthened by an infrastructure built in a region as inaccessible as the Baltoro.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The local village communities of Askole and surrounding areas, for whom the effective managemnet of the Baltoro route will provide a more stable income from mountain tourism, wildlife viewing, and wildlife harvesting, as well as the benefits of the community development.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The project will encourage and assit facilities (e.g. print material, electronic media) that improve access to and information on environmental protection. It will also produce series of publiation on the geography, histroy, flora, fauna and culture of mountain areas.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

The success of the project depends on the local people coopeation, because the climate is tough and harsh and only local people are used to it and without their cooperation and support the objective cannot be achieved.

Project Results

The primary stakeholders in the project were the local village communities of Askole and surrounding areas, for whom the effective management of the Baltoro route will provide a more stable income from mountain tourism, wildlife viewing, and wildlife harvesting, as well as potential benefits of the future community development initiatives. To enhance the capacities of the local communities to take active part in the sustainable management of their local habitat community members have been trained in campsite and waste management and wildlife surveying. Under the project demarcated camps have been constructed at two sites (Jhula and Paiyu) and a system for the collection, disposal, and dispatch of waste for recycling have been put in place. Fees for camping has been decided by the communities and revenue generated from the camping fees is managed by the communities and will be used to pay the salaries of camp managers and wildlife watchers. The surplus revenue will be used for local development projects decided by the communities.

Lower altitudes of the Baltoro region have suffered increased deforestation, often as a result of economic underdevelopment and mismanaged natural resources among local communities. Adding to this is the porters? frequent cutting of trees and shrub for firewood due to non-provision of kerosene to porters from the local tour operators. To address this issue MGPO has taken a multi-pronged approach through raising awareness among the local population about the effects of deforestation and planting of trees at the campsites and promoting the use of kerosene both among the porters and among the travel agents. The latter has led to some resistance from tour operators, which are the ones responsible for providing kerosene. MGPO is engaged in dialogue with these to find ways to work together and make tourism development a sustainable and profitable business for all.

The Baltoro is home to a diverse range of mountain wildlife such as fox, wolf, markhor, urial and Tibetan argali as well as a number of endangered species such as ibex, brown bear and snow leopard. As no up to date baseline data exists on the actual wildlife population in the area, however, the project has facilitated training of five local community members in basic wildlife surveying techniques by IUCN. They have taken a keen interest in wildlife surveying and are submitting regular wildlife survey reports to the IUCN office in Skardu. For the first year the wildlife guards were paid a monthly salary by the project, the communities have however agreed to pay the wildlife surveyors from the revenue generated from the camping fees so that activities can be sustained after the end of the project.

The annual stream of trekking tourists and climbers will be facilitated by a basic infrastructure along the Baltoro and MGPO will develop information materials to inform trekkers about existing rules and regulation so that they can help in enforcing them.

Some of the major achievements of the Baltoro Environmental Protection Programme can be summarized as follows:

The infrastructure put in place by MGPO provides a base for efforts toward environmental management and the conservation of biodiversity. The impact of tourists and mountaineers has been limited by establishing demarcated campsites managed by the local communities and by raising the awareness among locals, porters, travel agents, the local administration and tourists.

A community based management system has been put in place that will help generate income, thus creating financial incentive among the local communities to conserve biodiversity and providing a local financial mechanism with which to manage natural resources.

The Project has managed to bring together and increase cooperation between the different local communities that depend on tourism and porterage for a substantial part of their income during the summer and in this way laid the foundation for joint community collaboration for natural resources management in the valley.

The project has addressed the lack of awareness of sustainable use of natural resources among local communities through training and demonstration and are promoting environmental awareness among local community women on their role in conservation.

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