Islamabad : Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman celebrated the 75th Anniversary of Pakistan with the staff, Rangers, volunteers, and citizens in the Margalla Hills National Park Trail-5 for a clean-up drive.
“The Margalla Hills National Park has been home to many plants, animals, and wildlife species. This year has been especially tough for Pakistan’s protected areas due to the catastrophic impact of climate change. We lost several thousand trees to unprecedented forest fires this year. Most of them were due to the heat wave and dry weather. As human activities lessened due to the pandemic, the wildlife, the foxes, monkeys, jackals, and so on, reclaimed their spaces at the National Park. Now, as we attempt to coexist, the first rule of sharing space is to make sure you’re leaving it behind just as you found it. Littering of single-use plastics is becoming an issue at the Margalla Hills National Park; if ingested by any wildlife, it can be toxic and potentially life-threatening for them.”
“Pakistan is going through a climate crisis, and we cannot close our eyes and pretend it isn't. Margalla Hills National Park is our national asset. Islamabad is the only capital close to such a large national park in the world. I request hikers, citizens, and tourists to bring reusable bags and bottles while coming for recreational activities. If we don’t take climate action as citizens, we will be unable to slow down the impacts of climate change on our forests, rivers, nature, and us. We need to adopt a climate-friendly culture to combat climate change. We will be commencing the Monsoon Plantation Drive with the Prime Minister. I hope to see an improved forest cover in Pakistan which inevitably regulates the air we breathe and provides sanctuaries to multitudes of wildlife that might go extinct otherwise.”
“The Ministry and the CITES Management Authority imposed a ban on importing all exotic mammals in Pakistan. The IWMB is also recovering exotic pets and releasing them into their natural habitats. I would also urge the provinces, within their capacities, to do their bit to build climate resilience and take national goals forward on securing our future as the world heats up. We need long-term resilience and adaptation plans to build a buffer for new weather shocks that are now a new normal. Pakistan and the world face a triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution, and we need to come together to save our planet. We have only one Pakistan, and it is ours and the responsibility of every citizen to protect it.”