2nd Pakistan Moot on Desert Conservation to start from February 8

Islamabad 

Second Pakistan Moot on Desert Conservation (Pakistan DESERTCON), aimed at engaging youth and development partners in social and scientific research in different parts of the Cholistan Desert, will begin on February 8th 2016. This was stated by Director Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) and founder of the Pakistan DESERTCON Munir Ahmed,  talking to ‘The News’ here on Wednesday. 

He informed that  Islamia University Bahawalpur will host the Pakistan DESERTCON technically supported by the WWF, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP), Sustainable Tourism Foundation Pakistan, Bahawalpur Museum, Cholistan Development Authority, and the Bahawalpur departments of forests and wildlife. 

Pakistan DESERTCON is an annual event of the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) and partners that engages about 70 youth and 30 experts and faculty members in five thematic exposure and field research visits; sustainable agriculture, water harvesting and conservation, forests and biodiversity, heritage and culture, and eco-tourism.  

The Devcom-Pakistan Director said The Second Pakistan DESERTCON is a follow up initiative to pursue the Cholistan Desert awareness, development and conservation and heritage and eco-tourism promotion strategies by engaging youth with the experts and academia. It is aimed to highlight the impact of climate change on the already available meager natural resources and livelihood sustainability of the natives of the Cholistan Desert. “Despite of many interventions, the impact of climate change is taking its toll in the Cholistan Desert. Before it’s too late, we need to engage civil society especially youth, experts, academia and media to work together to review the engagement of different partners in different sectors in Cholistan Desert”, he said, “with the increasing impact of the climate change, the poor communities such as of the deserts, are becoming more vulnerable. So, there is a dire need to focus on the more impacted communities with vigorous solutions support by the civil society and the academia to engage the government functionaries in more efficient manner”. 

The participating youth would be a mix of urban and community representatives. As many as 50 university students and community youth would be engaged in the field visits to find out immediate challenges to agriculture, water, biological diversity, eco-tourism and cultural mainstreaming. The five youth groups would be supervised and mentored by the subject experts in the field visits to help the groups in finding out the facts directly impacting the concerned communities. 

The groups would present their findings at the Cholistan DESERTCON Forum that would be attended by the relevant UN agencies, federal and provincial government departments, academia, non-governmental organizations and the community based organizations. A group of youth would follow up with the concerned government organizations on the implementation of their recommendations presented at the Pakistan Desert Conservation Forum after the Moot. It would help in the sustainability of the initiative. 

The concluding ceremony would have grand cultural and musical performances by the singers and musicians from the desert communities.