Environmental research

2. Justification for Support - Linkages with GEF Themes and Operational Programmes (not more than 300 words) District Badin is situated at the tail of province it lies between 24o -13 to 25o -12 north latitudes and 68o -21 to 69o -20 east longitudes. It consists of five talukas. It is bounded on the north by Tando Mohammad Khan district, on the east by Mirpur Khas and Tharparkar districts, on the south by Rann of Kutch that forms international boundary with India, and on the west by Hyderabad and Thatta districts. The population of Badin has grown about four and half times in the past 47 years during which time five national censuses have been undertaken. It had a population of 256.04 thousand at the time of first census undertaken in 1951. The population of the district grew at an average annual growth rate of 3.22 during the past 47 years and was recorded 1.136044 millions in most recent Census of 1998 Agriculture is the main occupation of the people of Badin district. The women folk in the rural areas help the male members in the fields. As the lands of this district are low lying, therefore numbers of Dhands (Lakes) exist and as such a good number of population of Mallah community is engaged in the fishing occupation. The district is very rich in natural resources, in spite of it, the district ranks as the leading least developed district of province of Sindh in terms of per capita income and living standard. The major source of lighting in housing unit is electricity 76.29 percent housing units in urban area and 28.52 percent in rural area use electricity as source of lighting. The majority of people of rural area are deprived of the provision of electricity and more than 70 percent housing units use Kerosene oil as a source of lighting in rural area. This situation needs immediate improvement and provision of electricity especially in rural area of the district. The use of wood as fuel for cooking purpose is at alarming stage in the share of wood as fuel for cooking is 93.64 percent followed by Kerosene oil 3.52 percent and only 0.41 percent housing units use gas. In urban area, the major source of cooking fuel is also wood 49.83 percent followed by gas 21.97 percent and 3.92 percent Kerosene oil. Overall the wood consumption as a fuel in the district is very high 90.74 percent. This situation will badly disturb forest, trees and environment. The immediate steps should be taken to provide the energy efficient technologies so that forest and trees could be saved because they are fundamental agents for the better environment. Firewood and timber consumption for heating, cooking and household construction in semi-urban and rural communities of Badin put excessive pressures on forest and forest products; besides their negative impacts on health specially women and children, economy of the household and environment related problems. Generally people of the area lack awareness on the usage of energy efficient products and technologies The proposed project is designed to contribute to GEF small-grants programme thematic areas of (a) climate change efforts, b) energy efficiency and conservation (c) sustainable use of natural resources besides its impact on gender mainstreaming, poverty reduction and strengthening partnership among civil society organizations and communities. LDA is working the same area for last eight years and it has developed a strong social network in the area and is well aware of the needs of communities. GEF Small Grants funds will be utilized properly for the implementation of project activities. Funds would be auditable and can be checked at any time by the supporting agency and UNDP and AKPBS, P. LDA would maintain all the necessary accounting and financial statements and will share with UNDP/GEF secretariat accordingly. 3. Context/Baseline (not more than 300 words) Union Council Bughra Memon of Taluka Badin is the coastal area of Badin District with approximate population of 11,387 living in 141 villages in union council. World Bank carried out Socio-economic Study in coastal areas of Badin and Thatta in 2005, which shows that the people of coastal belt of Sindh are highly vulnerable to the social services. Almost 100% population uses wood for the purpose of cooking, heating and construction purposes and on average every household consumes 11-12 kg of wood for cooking and heating purpose daily, which is putting negative impact on biodiversity conservation, and averagely each household spends about Rs. 8000-1000 annually on fuel wood. Excessive usage of fuel wood on one hand puts negative impact on biodiversity of the area and on other hand endangers the health of women and children particularly and men generally due to carbon emission in the environment and in house. Different surveys and researches conducted by different organization indicate that the depleting sources of biodiversity have posed threats to the local livelihoods at risk and vulnerability. Normally houses are made of thatched including mud and Bamboo and there is no proper ventilation system in houses and kitchen as well. Kitchen and houses remains full with smoke during cooking and heating times, which ultimately affects the women and children, as they remain more time around the stove and in smoky environment inside the house. List of village is given as Annex 2 4. Project Objective and Proposed Activity (not more than 600 words) The proposed activity/project will replicate the well-known energy efficient

Pakistan