Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy The Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy is a Sustainable Development Action Plan for Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province and represents a significant milestone in the effort to implement Pakistan’s National Conservation Strategy. Action plans are needed at the provincial level to guide government departments, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and individual citizens. The SPCS is the first such provincial effort. It was approved by the NWFP Cabinet in June 1996, and implementation is underway.

The NWFP has a complex set of socio-economic, cultural and environmental factors that necessitate the adjustment of NCS priorities to reflect provincial realities. Thus, while issues such as conservation, sustainable resource management and biodiversity remain important priorities, as in the NCS, governance, a stronger civil society, poverty alleviation, conservation of the cultural heritage and ecotourism receive even more emphasis in the SPCS.

The SPCS team included a diverse set of environmental management and related specialists in an important partnership between the government and non-governmental organizations. It continued the national process of capacity development, and this improvement is evident in the government, which had little environmental expertise until just a few years ago. Similarly, the SPCS helped to strengthen the non-governmental environment sector, including IUCN-The World Conservation Union’s own effectiveness in the NWFP.

The Strategy’s development process placed a great emphasis on public involvement, taking the consultation process out of Peshawar, first to 21 district workshops and, later, to 40 more villages. Sector meetings with government departments, the private sector and academia complemented the process. After the NCS, this was one of the first times that public policy formulation was undertaken outside the capital city. The results are manifest in the SPCS recommendations. They reflect the variations in the natural resource base, economic activities, and socio-cultural conditions across the province.

The NCS is stated to provide the direction and central reference point against which sustainability can be measured within the provincial plans. As legal system, NGOs and citizens continue to contribute towards sustainable development and towards maintaining the province’s direction.

With the approval of the SPCS, the Government of NWFP has taken a leap forward in fulfilling its obligations to the people of the province, the country as a whole and to the global community.

For further details please visit the website at http://www.spcs.iucnp.org

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