‘Bundal Island should be a marine protected area’

Mangroves plantation can effectively tackle climate crises 

KARACHI: Environmentalists have urged the government to designate Bundal Island – located off the coast of Karachi, as a ‘marine protected’ area primarily to enhance mangrove plantation and effectively counter the perils of the fast-changing global climatic scenario.

While speaking at a session, titled ‘A Survival Story: Replanting Pakistan Mangroves’, at the Adab Festival in the city last week, a well-known environmentalist and activist Tariq Alexander Qaiser pointed out the need for mangroves preservation and plantation to counter the possible catastrophes in the coming days. He also shared a film report to highlight the imminent threat that mangrove forests along Karachi’s coast are up against. He specifically mentioned the endangered mangroves near Khiprianwala and Bundal Island.

Highlighting the significance of the island, Qaiser said Bundal Island’s forests are a gift of nature and their rightful usage could help in tackling environmental issues. He criticised the illegal logging on the island and warned that it can have dire consequences for the country’s climatic situation in days to come.

After losing as much as three-quarters of its mangrove forests over the past century, the South Asian nation began restoring its mangroves in the early 90s. As a result of joint efforts by government departments, non-profit organisations and corporations; mangrove forests’ cover in the Indus Delta increased from 86,000 hectares in 2005 to over 1,30,000 hectares by 2021. However, due to ineffective surveillance and policing deforestation is simultaneously increasing too.

Talking to Bol News, Qaiser stated that illegal logging has increased in recent years; causing significant disruption to the ecology. He also said that the rise in inflation has consequently increased the need for firewood as a cheap source of energy. He believes that despite the logging of mangroves, there is still time to save the ecosystem from disaster. He warned that Bundal Island should not be used for economic activities, and its wilderness should be preserved for the good of all and sundry.

On the contrary, the Chief Conservator of Mangroves Forests and Rangelands in Sindh, Riaz Wagan believes that by developing Bundal Island commercially would prove befitting for the country.  “Majority of the people in our country are from the middle, lower-middle and poor class. So, developing the island could pump in billions of dollars in our economy which would consequently improve the overall economic situation of the country”, he opined. He argued that if Pakistan has a golden area which could be fruitful from the perspective of investment, then why not go for that opportunity? He specified that only one per cent of the total area would be used for another purpose than mangroves plantation”.

According to Wagan, in the last few years, the mangrove cover has increased. “We have set targets of restoration and successfully have restored some 10,000-hectare area per year. The mangrove forests of the Indus delta cover an area of about 600,000 hectares”, he also said.

It is pertinent to mention here that according to environmentalists, the 59 countries having mangrove forests, play a pivotal role in providing relief to around 15 million people besides preventing more than 65 billion dollars in property damages annually by reducing flood and storm risks.

Furthermore, the economic importance of the Indus delta mangroves can be measured by the fact that they serve as breeding grounds for fish, shrimp, lobsters, and crabs. This helps the national economy to earn around 100 million dollars in foreign exchange from exports each year, besides providing a living for more than 100,000 people engaged in the fishing industry.

Pakistan is on the verge of a climate crisis, and experts predict that it will soon be uninhabitable for humans. Extreme weather such as torrential rains, deadly floods, devastating droughts and heat waves, have created unimaginable disasters.

Mangrove forests are a tremendously powerful and highly effective nature-based solution for carbon sequestration. They can store up to ten times more carbon than terrestrial forests. Despite occupying only 0.1 per cent of the earth’s shorelines, they sequester enough CO2 to offset China’s emissions for two years. They play an important role in mitigating climate change-exacerbated weather hazards through carbon sequestration and flood protection.

Photos: athar khan/Bol News