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NATURAL SCIENCES

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Man and Biosphere initiative for Juniper forests of Balochistan

Project Theme Natural Sciences
Project Title Man and Biosphere initiative for Juniper forests of Balochistan
Duration July 2011 - December 2012
Total Project Budget USD 300,000.00
Funding Sources One UN Environment
Implementing Partners - Ministry of Science and Technology
  (MoST)
- Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF)
- International Union for Conservation of
  Nature (IUCN)
- Provincial Departments of Balochistan
Location Ziarat-Balochistan
Project Officer Arslan Syed
Contact (email) sa.zaidi@unesco.org
Man and Biosphere initiative for Juniper forests of Balochistan
Pakistan which is an agrarian economy and has a rural population largely dependent upon natural resources. The country’s natural resources are already being depleted rapidly due to population growth and climate change is an added threat that will impede the adaptive capacities of dependant communities to meet their livelihood needs. Protected areas play an important role in conserving biodiversity resources and sustaining rural livelihoods. Biodiversity resources help in building the resilience and adaptation of local communities to the impacts of climate induced natural disasters such as droughts, floods and low productivity.

The Juniper forest ecosystem of Ziarat Pakistan is reputed to be the world’s second largest, and harbours some of the oldest species of Juniperusexcelsapolycarpu. Pakistan’s Juniper forest is also of global importance as a key store for carbon sequestration. Despite its status as a protected area sustainable management of the Juniper Forest Ecosystem remains threatened by the growing population, rise in poverty, poor governance and the dependence of the local communities on the ecosystem for goods and services to meet their livelihood needs.

Although a number of international initiatives exist for the sustainable management of Pakistan’s natural resources, establishing biosphere reserves through UNESCO’s ‘Man and Biosphere Reserves’ programme has not been fully tapped mainly due to weak implementation and enforcement at national level.

The intent of this project is three-fold, i.e it will galvanize institutional support for the implementation of the Madrid Action Plan (MAP) for Man and Biosphere (MAB) in Pakistan, and add an additional site- the Juniper Forest Ecosystem of Ziarat-, to the global network of biosphere reserves. The aim is also to facilitate and promote capacity building of all relevant stakeholders in the management of biosphere reserves in Pakistan and research on ecosystem services.