ENVIRONMENT: Communities Help Save a Symbol of Wild Pakistan

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nadeem Yaqub

CHITRAL, Pakistan, Nov 20 2003 (IPS) - As the sun goes down behind the high peaks, a pair of wild goats descends to the river to quench their thirst. About 300 kilometres north-west of Pakistan, Afghanistan is but a valley away, and Tajikistan is closer than the capital, Islamabad.

The animals are distinctive – sturdy bodies with their heads crowned by awesome sets of horns. Known as markhors, the habitat of the wild goats runs from the mountains north of the Amu Darya River in Turkmenistan, east through Afghanistan and Pakistan, and into the extreme northwestern part of India.

Here however, just 15 kilometres away from Chitral in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province and against the backdrop of the Hindu Kush and Himalayan peaks, the majestic wild goats drink their fill even as highway motorists stop to watch.

For, only a decade ago it was impossible to glimpse the flare-horned markhors like this. Their populations in the lower mountain regions of the province had been all but exterminated. Now the numbers of markhor have increased significantly, thanks mainly to a programme that combines trophy hunting and community education.

Pakistan remains the only country in the world to offer trophy hunting of the markhor. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) has permitted Pakistan to sell six markhor and ibex permits for trophy hunting every year.

On the request of the Pakistan government, CITES doubled the country’s quota for trophy hunting in 2002. The quota is distributed locally by the federal government which monitors the number of trophy-sized animals in specified areas.

Allowing trophy hunting of the markhor has, interestingly, boosted the numbers of the animals to a more sustainable level. Ashiq Ahmed Khan, chief technical adviser to the conservation organisation, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), said: ”Trophy hunting is allowed when there is an improvement in the population of animals.”

”The response of the communities towards the scheme is very encouraging,” added Khan. ”They are now aware about the stakes involved and the benefits they are likely to get from conservation of wildlife.”

According to Khan, between 75 and 80 percent of the money earned from providing trophy hunting permissions filters down to local communities. The amount is spent by village conservation committees on conservation and community programmes.

The system has made a difference. In 2000 each permit was sold for 22,000 U.S. dollars. After a publicity campaign, the next year’s going rate for the same permit was 27,000 U.S. dollars.

The Tooshi Game Reserve in Chitral district has gained tangibly from the programme. During the last two years six markhor trophies have been carried away, and in return the community has received over three million rupees (about 52,000 U.S. dollars).

Hence the president of the Al-Burhan Conservation Society of Tooshi, Sikandar-ul-Mulk, said that local efforts to conserve wildlife are paying off. ”People here now recognise the importance of protecting wildlife,” he said.

The money received by the community is used to pay the salaries of six people who monitor the state of the markhor numbers, for the construction of water collecting schemes, to fund the control of diseases and to pay for the feeding needs of the local markhor population.

Sikandar however believes that to make the scheme transparent and effective local communities should be involved in the bidding process for the permits as well. ”Because of the huge sums involved, in some cases middlemen buy the permits and sell them in the international market at exorbitant prices,” he said.

A precedent has already been set in the Bar Valley in northern Pakistan. The WWF encouraged communities to protect the local wildlife, and even paid for the purchase of meat for domestic consumption, which would be deducted from the trophy-hunting scheme. The result was encouraging – 11 local hunters were banned by the local community from hunting.

Protecting wildlife from poachers is an uphill task particularly in areas where communities are not organised. Despite every effort, man remains the major threat to the survival of indigenous species – local villagers hunt the animals for meat during the winter months, when the animals descend to more accessible hillsides.

Convincing local communities is an onerous task, as Sikandar pointed out. For those who rely on livestock tend not to share the philosophy of conservation, and also point out that more markhors means less food for their own goats.

While local communities have taken measures to prevent illegal hunting, it remains a reality, as the government’s wildlife department has neither the resources nor the equipment to counter the threat.

Abdul Farhad Khan, divisional forest officer in Chitral, explained why this is so. The department has 40 watchers to cover 15,000 square kilometres of wildlife area, he said. The department imposes a heavy penalty on illegal hunters if and when they are caught – but no one has been caught for three years.

Ill-equipped watchers, some environmentalists point out, are far from effective when it comes to tackling illegal hunters. As game watcher Khalil Khan pointed out, ”How can I take action when hunters carry Kalashnikovs?”

Chitral district shares a long border with Afghanistan, and the movement of wildlife across the geographic border is natural. On the Afghan side of the border, it is learnt that locals kill the markhor for meat.

But more importantly, markhor horns are in demand for what is called ”traditional Asian medicine”. In China, for example, horns of the wild goat reportedly fetch prices of up to 1,000 U.S. per kilogramme.

Given that the markhor’s horns are among the most desired of all hunting trophies, with the record horn length exceeding 1.5 metres, the need is for both Pakistan’s government and the local communities around Chitral to continue to safeguard this unique symbol of Pakistan.