STAFF REPORT KHI: A national consultation workshop on coastal erosion in Pakistan has recently been held in Karachi where major stakeholders, chiefly the government agencies, civil society organizations, the private sector, and local communities working along the coast of Pakistan gave their input and participants unanimously acknowledged the intensity of the coastal erosion issue which is causing huge economic and ecological losses along the coasts of Pakistan.

The Coastal Erosion Management Plan is being prepared as part of the COBSEA project “Strengthening the Resilience of Coastal Communities, Ecosystems, and Economies to Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Erosion”.

Under the first phase of this project, a National Assessment Report on Coastal Erosion in Pakistan has already been prepared and the second phase focuses on the development of the coastal erosion management plan.

The meeting was chaired by Syed Mahmood Nasir, Inspector General Forest, and facilitated by Dr. Qama-ur-Zaman Chaudhry. The IGF aspired that such a document needs endorsement of Federal and Provincial governments to create a wider ownership.

Dr. Qamar also emphasized on the importance of data collection and monitoring of coastal erosion for making informed decisions.

Fauzia Malik, Programme Coordinator, IUCN Pakistan, hoped that different aspects of coastal development would be debated to firm up a comprehensive Coastal Erosion Management Plan for Pakistan.

Syed Ghulam Qadir Shah, National Coordinator, MFF, Abdul Munaf Qaimkhani, Deputy IGF, and Riaz Wagan, Conservator Forests also spoke on the occasion.

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