February 2, 2011
Thatta Feb 2: The Minister Fisheries Zahid Ali Bhurgari has said that fishermen should exploit fish resources on sustainable basis and awareness raising is imperative for all the stakeholders to protect wetlands. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Keejnhar Conservation and Information Centre developed by WWF under Indus for All Programme. The Minister said that fishermen community has been earning their livelihood from centuries but warned that unsustainable fishing practices would jeopardize the resource base. He said that after agriculture sector, fisheries play vital role in the economy but this sector has been was ignored by the previous governments. He said that present government gives high priority to the sector and efforts has been made to improve the situation. He lauded the efforts made by WWF in setting up Information Center at Keenjhar Lake and hoped that this would contribute significantly in creating awareness among the visitors and local community. The Programme Coordinator WWF Nasir Ali Panhwar said that WWF has established eight information centres in the country and the Centre at Keenjhar is first of its kind, which would enhance awareness in the tourists and provide facility for the researchers from the academia to conduct research. He said that watch tower providing broad view of the Lake is important feature of the Center, adding that guided tours, nature camping, bird watching, educational day trips and boat safaris would also be undertaken. X Highlighting the theme of world wetlands day which was forest and wetlands, he said that importance situation of both needs to be improved in the country. Director General Fisheries Ghulam Mohammad Mahar said that use of banned nets and over exploitation of fish resources has affected the fisheries sector. He said that water shortages and climate change has brought negative impacts on the wetlands of Sindh and not only aquatic life but the entire food web is disturbed. He said that low cost cage with local material would be developed at the Lake to provide sustainable livelihood and increase in fish production. Writer Rasool Bux Dars said that reasons on the reduction of migratory birds at Keenjhar needs to assessed as Lake has no more migratory birds, which used to be in thousands. He said that untreated industrial effluent from Kotri is the major cause of pollution in the Lake. DCO Thatta Jaffar Abbasi, Ghulam Mujtaba Wadhar Director Fisheries Inland, Umeed Khalid NRM Coordinator WWF and Hafeez site manager WWF also spoke at the occasion. The ceremony was attended by large number of fishermen, students, representatives of government and non government organizations.
For further Information:
Muhammad Zafar Khan
Manager Communications and Environmental Education
Contact: 0300-3495901
email: zafar.hilbi@gmail.com
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