28 March 2009
Communities of Pai Forest Got Exposure to Other Conservation Initiatives in the Ecoregion. In order to share and get shared the learning experiences with the communities of other two sites of the programme and a National Park. 23 community members, both male and female, from Pai Forest visited Keenjhar Lake, Keti Bandar and Kirther National Parkduring 25-28March 2009. One of the objectives of the visit was to know each other’s experiences of commity-based natural resource managemt initiatives. The group consisted of CBOs representatives, teachers, youth leaders, and journalists.
At the Khirthar National Park, delegation was facilitated by Sindh Wildlife Department. The major objective achieved there was the clarification of community practices about trophy hunting, while wildlife sighting was also an interesting activity. The role of local community was focus in most. At Keenjher, interactive meetings with CBOs, Youth Groups and Women Groups were conducted in which learning experiences were shared from both sides. Community based interventions like Energy Plantation, Vocational Centre initiated under Indus for All Programme also observed. In Keti Bunder, the visiting community observed nurseries of Jatropha and Castor, which have been raised to demonstrate the extraction of bio diesel as alternate, and environment friendly fuel. Delegation then, traveled into Hajamrhho creek and held meeting with a CBO. They observed interventions such as solar panels, wind turbines, community school, boat water tanker, freezers for fish storage and Mangrove plantation carried out by the local community.
In their feedback, most participants said that the visit was entirely an eye opening as their concept on trophy hunting was cleared, first time seeing Keenjher Lake from northern side and communities living there, life and initiatives at Keti Bunder had given quite new turn to their lives.
