THARPARKAR: Tharparkar district in Sindh is mostly desert, with some parts extending into irrigated agricultural plains and others into the hilly areas of Nagarparkar. The district covers 19,637 square kilometres and has a population of around 1.5 million, most of whom depend on a rain-fed agro-pastoral economy for their livelihood. The district’s poverty rate is said to be nearly 70 percent, double that of other districts in the country, and 89 percent of its available water is unfit for human consumption.
The rate of environmental degradation can be gauged from figures provided by the IUCN, the UNDP and the Ministry of Environment. In 1996, the IUCN placed 25 species of wildlife in the area on its Red List of threatened species, and the number has since increased drastically. A 1997 survey by the wildlife department found that the area met the criteria for a national park, but nothing has been done so far.
The Karoonjhar hills are home to 154 rare plant species, 26 rare mammal species and 400 types of flowers.
Similarly, in 2010, the Ministry of Environment and the UNDP declared seven arid-zone plants rare species, five of which are native to Tharparkar.
The Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE), in collaboration with Bioclimate, organised a workshop on “Payment for Ecosystem Services” in Mithi, Tharparkar.
“The Thari Women’s Project aims to reduce poverty and hunger,” said Tanvir Arif, Chief Executive Officer of SCOPE. “The project focuses on supporting marginalised and excluded communities to address the problems of social exclusion, lack of drinking water and lack of enterprise opportunities,” he added.
Marginalised communities in the target area will be organised into village-level community organisations, which will be helped to build their organisational capacity. Under the umbrella of these community-based organisations, villagers will set up and manage their own savings and introduce kitchen gardening. They will also earn income from planting guggal gum trees and from other enterprise activities. In this way, the most vulnerable men and women will earn money and improve their families’ nutrition.
A SCOPE representative said women would be trained to increase their household income by cultivating guggal gum trees on a total of 16.25 hectares of communal land. Village-based organisations will earn and manage performance-based payments for planting and looking after the endangered guggal trees, and locals will earn income from selling gum extracted using non-chemical methods. Arif expressed hope that the project would improve food production.
Esther Robb of Bioclimate UK said that, “Our aim is to improve the lives of rural communities and the way they manage their natural and financial resources.”
A large number of civil society activists, local residents, government officials and journalists attended the event.