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PM to launch Protected Area Initiative in Islamabad today
July 02, 2020

FILE PHOTO

Prime Minister Imran Khan will launch Protected Area Initiative in Islamabad on Thursday.

As a part of its post COVID-19 Green Stimulus vision, Pakistan is launching its Protected Areas Initiative with the dual objective of protecting nature and generating jobs for unemployed youth.

The Prime Minister, himself an avid environmentalist, will be personally announcing and leading this initiative with the announcement of 15 National Parks, covering a land area of over 7300 square kilometers, spanning the mountains in the north to the scrub forests in the plains and a marine protected area in the south of the country.

Out of these, 9 are new and recently declared National Parks while 6 others were notified, but never protected. All will be made fully functional National Parks for the first time, with proper ecological management and governance.

Under the initiative, the protected areas coverage in the country will be enhanced to 15 percent of the country's land area from the current 13 percent while also ensuring proper management and effective governance of the existing protected areas most of which exist only as paper parks.

In the initial phase, almost 5000 direct nature jobs will be generated for the youth.