Islamabad, July 11: IUCN joined hands with the partners in celebrating Golden Jubilee of the first ascent of K2 - Pakistan's highest and world's second highest mountain.

A well attended International Conference was held in Islamabad to commemorate the occasion. PTDC is also celebrating the Year as the 51st Anniversary of the Nanga Parbat. Prime Minister of Pakistan, large number of federal ministers, high ranking officials, diplomats, mountaineers, and people from the donor and development sector attended the conference.

Prime Minister, Choudhry Shujaat Hussain visited IUCN stall. He was presented copies of the special publication on K2 jointly published by the IUCN and EV-K2-CNR, his cabinet colleagues also received the flyer and a K2 sticker specially designed and produced for the occasion. The flyer and stickers remained in great demand through out the day and over 700 flyers and 400 stickers were disseminated among the participants of the Conference.

lavi Silvio - the Italian architecture who designed the Mountain Museum in Skardu displayed the pyramid shaped structure of the museum at the stall.IUCN Pakistan Country Representative presented a detailed paper entitled 'Eco-tourism in relation to Environment and Poverty Alleviation'. The paper contained detail analysis and data on the nexus between pro poor eco-tourism activities, environmental concerns and tourism for poverty alleviation in the most economically marginalized mountain communities. Minister of State for Environment chaired the session. In his remarks he made a special reference to the IUCN work in the mountain areas vis a vis MACP.