Bio-diversity

Indus Development Organization (I.D.O) is non-government, non-for-profit organization founded by some political approach bearing rights activists in 1992 and got registration under Societies act of 1860, in May 1995 with registration # 3685, is striving to supervise Fundamental Human Rights violation situation and launching different advocacy campaigns and developing capacities of rural and semi-urban areas for combating the new social and economical challenges of the world. IDO is working in all sectors through communities and is conducting all the activities of capacity building applying participatory methods. 2-Justification for Support - Linkages with GEF Themes and Operational Programmes Since times immemorial Sindh has been blessed with considerable tree cover in the form of riverine forests. About 8% of the total geographical area of Sindh (14.09 million ha) equivalent to some 1.3 million ha, is under the administrative control of Sindh forest and Wild life Department. Forest Management Plans (1999-2000), reported productive riverine forests on 0.241 million ha. From the riverine forest area 0.241 million ha, an area of 90000 ha (about 35%) was officially reported as blank and covered with sand dunes while about 39000 ha or 16% contained shrubs and small sized trees. Matyari district bears forest and Riverian area. Riverine area and forests are comprised on one eighth of its total land near to river Indus. The riverine forest has large resource deficiency and on-going depletion to meet fodder and timber needs of growing population. Poverty and shortage of firewood and fodder have compelled the people to cut and sell the trees on large scale; as a result the forests are vanishing from the area with the passage of time. Another major reason of cutting the trees is that it is being used in furniture and handicrafts , thus cutting the trees is completely wiping the forest. Due to all these reasons trees which are balancing the ecology of the area since centuries, are being rooted out at large scale, and the practice of cutting forest will cause imbalance in environmental conditions and ecology of the area, therefore intervention for conservation of the forest is urgently needed. This project is aimed to protect/preserve this natural forest. This project is directly linked to the bio-diversity conservation and land degradation. This project will ultimately reduce the cutting of the forest. The forest is main source of balancing the environmental conditions/ecology. Funds received from the GEF would be utilized on proposed activities and other resources would be used to implement the project well and achieved the targeted objectives. This project responds to the operational guidelines and country program of Pakistan in which the forest that is under great threat will be conserved through awareness and advocacy. This project will help the people to promote the conservation and sustainable use of bio-diversity, which form the foundation for sustainable development. Rapid loss of bio-diversity poses a global threat to human being and their livelihoods. The scale of human impacts on biological diversity is increasing exponentially primarily because of worldwide patterns of consumption, production, trade, agricultural, industrial and settlements development, and population growth. The GEF operates as a mechanism for international cooperation for the purpose of providing new and additional grant and funding to meet the agreed incremental costs of measures to achieve agreed global environmental benefits and biological diversity. Global environmental benefits obtained under the CBD include reduced risks of global bio-diversity loss, the enhanced production of ecosystems and the species they contained, and increased the sustainability in the use of bio-diversity components. 3-Context/Baseline Riverine area of Matyari district comprises on 6 union councils of its Matyari and Hala talukas, which is also our projective area. The forest area is facing worst ever degradation due to large scale forest cutting for the purpose of sell as well as for using in the furniture and handicrafts. This has resulted in the cutting of forests on the large tracts. The project s main objective is to protect the forest of riverian area. Local community men and social organizers of IDO informed that this forest is cut for meager amount and supplied to other areas having no other alternatives for survival. The dealers from many big cities including Hyderabad have perpetrated in the area and encourage the local villagers to cut those forests and sell them. The organization also verified the situation visiting the area. This forest shows the picture of treeless land for miles. No tree can be seen for miles. This situation has compelled the people to cut the trees from roots to earn their livelihood. In such a situation there is strong need of intervention in the area to save the ecology of the area and the forests of the area from further cutting. 4-Project Objective and Proposed Activity The main objective of this project is to preserve the vanishing forest. This project is intended to create awareness among the local communities of 6 union councils of district Matyari where the poor forest is under great threat to be rooted out in near future. The people who are engaged in this practice and have been the enemy of this forest will be convinced not to root out the trees on meager amount and masses of the said area will be given aw

Pakistan