Annual meeting of Hindu Kush Karakoram Pamir Landscape

The Hindu Kush Karakoram Pamir Landscape(HKPL) lies at the convergence of several important bio geographical regions and possesses a unique and rich assemblage of floral and faunal diversity. It spreads over 67,506 km² at a junction of the three highest mountain ranges of the world–the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and the Himalaya.The region is also the source or upstream area of many important rivers, including the Amu Darya, Tarim River, and Indus River, and therefore has great conservation value. It is a key link in the ancient Silk Road, and an important corridor through which many influential ethnic groups migrated across Eurasia, resulting in an extremely diverse and brilliant cultural mix and regional history.

To conserve biological diversity, governments in the respective countries have established protected areas across the landscape. Many of these protected areas are in close proximity to each other, with common species and ecosystems. Six protected areas are physically connected – Wakhan National Park of Afghanistan, Broghil National Park, Qurumbar National Park, Khunjerab National Park of Pakistan, Taxkorgan Nature Reserve of China and Zorkul Nature Reserve of Tajikistan. The region’s entire population lives below the poverty line.There is huge potential for developing a regional cooperation framework focusing on strengthening knowledge sharing and networking, synergizing development plans with common management objectives, establishing a common market for cross-border trade and tourism, strengthening capacity development for livelihood promotion, and adding value to local niche products. These opportunities offer significant scope to increase local incomes and sustainable development.

On April 2016  a workshop was conducted to finalize the rangeland survey protocol and work plan with different country partners. Preliminary finding of the study was presented during building partnership meeting in Lanzhou on December 2017.  Another workshop on “Understanding Interlinkages of six protected areas in Transboundary landscape of HKPL in July 2017 at Lanzhou, China was jointly organized by  International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Lanzhou University (LZU) to initiate scoping study in the landscape.Lanzhou University have supported HKPL to execute a scoping study from 2017 to 2018 in the PAs where no study has yet been initiated.

In order to know the status and progress of the ongoing activities in the landscape, HKPL is planning to organize an annual meeting jointly with COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT)  in Islamabad, Pakistan from 9-10th November, 2017. COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT)  is also a member of the Himalayan University Consortium – HUC.

Objective

The overall objective of the annual meeting is to bring together relevant and key partners from the four partner countries of the landscape – Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan to discuss  about the progress of rangeland resource assessment study, scoping study in the landscape and develop action plan for future.

1. To present findings of the rangeland resource assessment  in HKPL
2. To present preliminary findings from the scoping study of HKPL protected area
3. To share HKPL learning from 2017 and develop action plan for 2018
4. Strengthen partnership and networking for next five year

Expected outcomes

1. Increased understanding of status of rangeland in HKPL
2. Progress report by partners on rangeland study
3. Effective sharing of  knowledge on different ongoing activities in HKPL
4. A timeframe for follow-up actions
5. Networking and synergies of activities for five year plan
6. The workshop proceedings