The Pakistan Wetlands Programme, implemented by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), on Thursday organised the celebration of one of its mega events, held each year on February 2, to mark the date of adoption of the International Convention on Wetlands in Ramsar, Iran in 1971.
The event was organised at Islamabad College for Girls (ICG), F-6/2, where it commenced at 9:00 am and ended at 1:00 pm. Around 100 schools from Rawalpindi and Islamabad took part in the event. About 4,000 students participated in various activities organised by the PWP.
The students actively participated in the art, story-writing and poetry competitions. Through this event, PWP intended to create awareness about the vital connection that exists between tourism, wetlands and the people. It marked the importance of protection and conservation of wetlands.
The chief guest of the event was Ministry of National Disaster Management Secretary M Javed Malik. Other guests included Forest Department Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abdul Munaf Kaimkhani and UNDP Environment and Energy Programme Officer Saleem Ullah.
The opening remarks were given by PWP National Programme Manager Dr Ghulam Akbar, followed by a speech by the chief guest on the significance of the day. The closing remarks were made by PWP Programmes Director Ahmad Khan.
This year, the World Wetlands Day celebrations focused on the theme ‘Wetland and Tourism’, with a slogan ‘Wetland Tourism: A Great Experience’. This has been designed to create a sense of awareness among people about the role that tourism plays in the environment. The wetland tourism has benefits for people and wildlife, both locally and nationally, including stronger economies, sustainable livelihoods, better health and thriving ecosystems.
With their natural beauty and biodiversity, the wetlands make ideal locations for tourism. The income can be significant and support livelihoods locally and nationally. Unsustainable tourism may bring short-term benefits but long-term losses to wetland conditions, compromising ecosystem services and sometimes local livelihoods. Therefore, awareness campaigns was organised on the event of World Wetlands Day to highlight the importance of sustainable tourism.
A similar campaign was organised at Gilgit, Chitral, Khabbeki Khushab, Kot Adu, Faisalabad, Lahore, Sukkur, Keenjhar, Karachi, Gawadar and other towns and villages of Pakistan.
A range of activities were organised at ICG to enable the students to express their views on the subject through arts, debate, play and poetry competitions, among other activities. The event served as a knowledge-sharing avenue, where students had the opportunity to exchange their views and learn about the significance of forests and wetlands from the environmentalists.
The closing ceremony will be held on Feb 15, where the winning participants will be awarded with gifts and souvenirs.
