Experts urge inclusive, responsible winter sports strategy

Islamabad : Speaking at a webinar the experts urged for an inclusive and integrated winter sports strategy to attract tourism towards northern Pakistan.

Environment and climate change shall remain the main concern while massive human activities would disturb their lifecycle. Unplanned massive interventions are becoming hazards to the local environment and communities besides the biological diversity loss. A fistful influential ones are enjoying at the cost of millions of people while the poor communities are not only deprived of their local environment, heritage and natural resources, they are also not getting anything in return.

The experts also showed their concerns on the unwise decisions of the Gilgit-Baltistan government to open Deosai National Park for the winter sports from March this year. They said millions of dollars have been spent on the conservation and protection of the wildlife habitats and biological diversity in the Deosai National Park that are being put on risk.

The participants urged the Supreme Court of Pakistan, national and international development organizations to take notice of it. The webinar was organized by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) and DTN to brainstorm on “Winter Sports – Scope, Opportunities and Challenges” on Sunday.

The panelists included National Tourism Coordination Board (NTCB) member and sustainable tourism expert Aftab ur Rehman Rana, National Tourism Coordination Board convener on adventure sports Shahid Nadeem, WWf-Pakistan Senior Director Wildlife Rab Nawaz, another WWFS-Pakistan Senior Director Tahir Rasheed, EvK2CR Environment Conservation Expert Arif Hussain, Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed.