Coordinator to Prime Minister on Climate Change, Romina Khurshid Alam has said Pakistan’s northern region is home to unique biodiversity and ecosystems of global repute, but, it is grappled with several significant threats stemming from both natural and human-caused factors.

She was addressing as a keynote speaker at a national seminar on the ‘Biodiversity Safeguarding Initiative: Global Assessment of the State of Nature and Biodiversity Safeguarding Actions in Northern Pakistan’ here on Thursday.

The PM’s climate aide stressed that tackling escalating risks to the resource-rich biodiversity and ecosystems is need of the hour to protect the biodiversity and resource-rich ecosystems for overall environmental and human sustainability and development.

Spelling out the threats to the sustainability of biodiversity and ecosystems, Romina Khurshid said continuing loss of habitat and fragmentation, deforestation and land degradation, soil erosion, water and soil pollutions and contaminations, illegal wildlife poaching and trade, unsustainable agricultural practices, use of chemical fertilisers in farming, unsustainable production and consumption patterns and climate change are among the key pressing challenges facing the unparalleled biodiversity in the country’s north.

She emphasised the need for urgency of collective action for safeguarding the region’s natural heritage comprising unique biodiversity and natural ecosystems. She said northern Pakistan is blessed with unparalleled biodiversity, but it is under threat.

She said through collaboration and shared responsibility, we must work together to protect our ecosystems and conserve the biodiversity in the country, particularly in the northern parts for sustainability of the environment, of our own and future generations.

Romina Khurshid also appreciated the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-Pakistan) for organising an important seminar on the Biodiversity Safeguarding Initiative for sharing the project achievements and collectively focuses on the conservation of biodiversity in the country.

She highlighted that establishment of biodiversity corridors in the Khunjerab National Park jointly with the local community and Gilgit Baltistan Forest, Parks and Wildlife department is another unique initiative, which would significantly help for biodiversity conservation.

She also highlighted that no doubted community-based ecotourism pilots have paid fruitful dividends and proved as excellent examples towards establishing sustainable tourism in the northern region.