Protected areas in KP increased by 5pc, meeting told

PESHAWAR: The Wildlife Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has achieved its target of increasing the protected areas from 10 percent to 15 percent of the total area of the province with the aim to conserve, protect and increase wildlife and other biodiversity.

The government has now nine national parks, 87 community game reserves, 38 public game reserves, five conservancies, three wildlife Sanctuaries, two wildlife refuges, four sites of special scientific interest with an accumulative area of more than 1,564,000 hectares which make 15.38 percent of the total area of the province.

This was stated in the 2nd meeting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife and Biodiversity Board held with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair. The meeting was told that progress was being made to declare some other suitable places of the province as protected areas which include Rakh Topi National Park, Gusarrh National Park, Bashqar Gol Biosphere Reserve and Koh-e-Suleman Conservancy.

The chief minister said that enhancement of the protected areas up to the set target was a great achievement of the provincial government to ensure protected and conservation of the wildlife and biodiversity, and directed the concerned quarters for necessary measures to further increase the protected areas so that conservation of wildlife and Biodiversity specially the endangered species could be ensured.

The board approved financial assistance to the employees of wildlife department in case of injury and death during official duty on the analogy of the financial assistance admissible to other civil servants. The board also approved to set up biodiversity fund as provided in the relevant Act for sustainable interventions for the protection and conservation of Biodiversity.

Moreover, the board conditionally approved honorarium on annual basis for zoo staff keeping in view the fact that zoo staff perform duties round the clock.