LPR Reveals Serious Threats To Fresh Water Ecosystem

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Nov, 2018 ) :Director Programme World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Pakistan chapter Rabnawaz said the northern region of Gilgit and coastal areas of the country were under severe impact of global climate change impact over the region.

Talking to APP, he said the living planet report (LPR) 2018 launched earlier by WWF reported the alarming and serious threads to the wildlife species.

He said the current government was taking practical steps over wildlife and climate change issues in the form of water and climate policy, but it need more efforts to contribute more in this regard.

Agriculture sector should also be taken on board in climate change impact mitigation initiatives as it was undergoing serious implications and effects of environmental changes, he added.

The LPR report reveals that, "Freshwater ecosystems contain disproportionately more species per unit area than marine and global ecosystems." "The pressures created by human settlements and infrastructure, water use, pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change are impinging on all aspects of the health of rivers, lakes, " the director added.

Living Planet Index further claims that freshwater ecosystems are also impacted by increasing withdrawal and consumption of surface water for a variety of uses but dominated by agriculture, which is responsible for approximately 70 percent of total consumption.

Water quality is also of concern.

Finally, climate change is exacerbating existing stressors and causing changes in the timing, availability and temperature of waters, affecting the condition of freshwater habitats and the life history of freshwater species, the reported underscored.

The science of environmental flow assessment has advanced rapidly over the last two decades and it is possible now to provide recommendations for environmental flows, he saidAs per the report recommendations, states require challenging shifts in infrastructure planning. Existence of progressive legislation and regulation, collaboration and leadership, resources and capacity, and adaptive management.

It is pertinent to mention here, The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda on Environmental Flows, published in 2018, is a clarion call to governments and stakeholders to build on previous successes through widespread implementation of environmental flows through legislation and regulation, water allocation, management programmes and research, linked by partnership arrangements involving divers stakeholders, the report maintained.