The K-2-Siachen Peace Park

Conserving Tourism

The ancient historian Vegetius once quipped, "If you want peace, prepare for war." The rule can be applied for tourism and conservation, "If you want tourism, conserve your nature and genetics". One of my friends had an even better analogy; he says "tourists are like cows, moving to greener pastures once existing stock of grass at a given pasture is no more there. After all a tourist visits a place for its natural beauty and diversity", he adds with a grin.

Rugged and barren they may seem at a first glance, high mountains of the Northern Areas are treasure trove of precious array of biological diversity, containing a number of globally significant species such as snow leopard, flair horn markhor, Marco Polo sheep, blue sheep, musk deer, brown bear and wooly flying squirrel. Rough terrain and weather conditions have in fact provided a natural refuge to nurture its peculiar genetics and cultural diversity.

With the traditional subsistence agriculture is being replaced by off-farm employments, a services oriented and cash driven local economy is fostered by the new mean of livelihood called tourism. Tourism is emerging as the basic mainstay of the local economy. Reliance on tourism as means of livelihood can be gouged by the amount of difficulties people underwent during the last couple of years, when the tourism industry saw a huge slump following the 9/11 episode, the depression impacted around fifty per cent of the total population, who were directly and indirectly associated with the tourism in the area. Over the years, tourism has turned out to be a blessing as well as blight for the mountain communities. It has created jobs, brought money and contributed in improving the economic conditions of the poorer lots.

Each year thousands of people directly earn from tourism by working as high altitude porters, guides, cooks, tour operators, transporters and hoteliers, not to mention employment generated through subsequent secondary and tertiary sources like boom in constructions, agriculture and handicraft development etc. Notwithstanding the positive influence of the sector on overall economic conditions of the communities, tourism everywhere brings with it challenges and issues concerning human and natural environment.

Today unregulated tourism is a major threat endangering the biodiversity; importance of regulating tourism in biologically sensitive areas cannot be under estimated. In fact, establishment of conservancies, sanctuaries, heritage conservation and natural park development initiatives in the region owes its momentum to increased awareness and support for environment friendly tourism activities at various levels. The concept of ecological or eco-tourism stemmed from the human apprehension that unregulated tourism can cause degradation of sensitive biological resources. Generally, some of the negative effects of unplanned tourism is destruction of forest, disturbance to wild and aquatic life, trampling and forest fires. Another important aspect that must be kept in perspective is the concentration of tourism activities spanning a very brief season and in a limited area, which exerts additional pressure on the regions repository of high value endemic species and genetic resources.

For a long time, a number of people in the NA remained within certain limits, in which both human and natural diversity prospered. Hunting has been a historical means of livelihood, but with rapid increase in human population in recent decades, numbers of plant and wildlife species have seen a rapid decline.

"Till we got our freedom in 1948, I recall we have had sufficient number of wildlife roaming around here, but once we had our freedom, it seems, we got a freedom to slaughter any wild creature which come in sight" says Ghulam Rasool, a veteran conservation activist. "It was correct that people in earlier times too, would indulge in hunting, but they would not fire upon animals randomly, rather, they would go for the biggest one, intentionally sparing the younger lot, it was something like sustainable harvesting of wildlife" he added.

Northern Areas present one of the most exhilarating mountain ecology; among its collections are some of the highest mountains of the world including the second highest point on the face of the earth - K2 or Chogori as it is known locally. Mountain tourism in fact has for a long time, constituted the single most important segment of the local economy. There is no doubt that tourism brought economic betterment and large-scale employment opportunities to the otherwise poor mountain communities, living under harsh conditions. They also got a good share to benefit from wide range of infrastructure e.g. airports, roads, hotels as well as telecommunication and health services established for the sake of tourists.

However, improved road links also mean increased and easier trafficking in plant and animal species, reportedly, trade in organs of important species such as brown beers, musk deer's and trophies of prized wildlife have been flowing unchecked through the Karakoram Highway. Since the mid-80s, following sectarian tensions, gun culture has also made its way to the mountains, besides, large amount of forces had to be stationed in some parts, due to Indian armed incursions, initially, into the Siachan area.

Similarly, a concentration of armed forces and exchange of fire along the Skardu-Kargil area has severely affected lives of wild plants and animals, particularly at Deoasai Plateau, where peace and ecosystem of the remaining 23 brown bears have been severely affected by the increase human presence and gunfire. Many valuable herbs in upland pastures were over-harvested, inflicting irreparable damage to the already thin and sensitive soil cover, which in turn led to persistent soil erosion, some time taking with the entire village under avalanches.

Wild plants have been important source of protein and nutrients for the mountain people, till couple of decades back, people use to extract about half of the food requirement from uncultivated plants and weeds. Scientist warns that areas of high biological interest once lost are almost impossible to regenerate, thus its value for tourism goes down forever. In such circumstances, tourists don't lose much, as like a cow, he will move to other greener pastures or destinations, it is the locals who have suffer the consequences, as they have to live there even the tourists no more visits the place.

Take the case of Askole and Paju villages in Shigar valley; these are the last resting villages for tourist trekking onward to the K2 base camp and Baltoro glacier area. Three decades ago there were some green patches of Juniper forests in the surrounding mountains. But over the years these trees have completely disappeared, reason that thousands of porters along the trekking routes have been collecting fuel wood. An alternate fuel arrangement to the porters at an earlier stage could have saved those valuable tree covers.

Though, we are discussing the nexus between tourism and conservation at a time when tourism is facing recession, which has badly affected the livelihood of thousands of people in the region. But, the current low ebb also provides an opportunity to lay back and reflect on what kind of tourism we want in an ecologically sensitive area. Should we look at the tourism as a mean to earn some quick money or should we try to foster and advocate for a tourism that is more responsible and respectful to the cultural and natural heritage of the region, in short and long term? I assume we must follow the later.

Over the years public awareness and support for conservation has been on the rise. Community based conservation initiatives have contributed in fostering this enlightenment. Innovative conservation concepts like trophy hunting have become hugely popular, whereby communities receives direct and immediate monetory reward for stewardship of the wild resources. The number of international hunter interested in hunting in the area has been on the up lately. A successful trophy hunt of the markor brings to a community an attractive; $25,000/-, 80 per cent of which goes into the community account and the remaining to the Government.

Earlier, people within the community use to hunt ibex and markhor for domestic consumption, what they could get out of a hunt was meat worth couple of thousand rupees, now the whole village earns big money in exchange for an old and aged animal. This has made the community themselves guarding wildlife. Last year, in Gojal an official attempting to hunt an ibex was chased out of the village, when village women working in the field saw him trying to hunt.

"Here in Gilmit, we want to establish conservation committee, Khyber has earned a lot, I am member of the Khyber Valley Organization (KVO), In KVO we have around 50 lakh rupees, these were earned through donations, savings and than trophy hunting, we also did project and saved some money from them. We have invested rupees 20 lakh in the Sust Dry Port (under construction), we have bought share for the seven communities with that money by the KVO, we buy fertilizers for the community and we plan to have a store for the community. We wish to establish schools as well. We have progressed due to working with the NGOs, we learned to work, we are thankful to the AKRSP, IUCN, WWF, we learned from them, and many NGOs have learned from us, as well", says Zaman Khan from village Gircha, near Sust.

The statement speaks for the level of motivation among the local people regarding conservation. Already there is talk of a Siachan Peace Park, and revival of the concept of Central Karakuram National Park, once tipped for the list of the World Heritage Sites among the international public and policy circles. 2004 has already been declared 'Year of K2'. The occasion, as well as melting of political ice in Delhi and Islamabad may provide an impetus to engender local and global commitment for conservation of the great mountain heritage of the central Karakuram. There is need to take a broad and holistic approach to conservation in the region.

It is important that the Northern Areas should be treated as a national biodiversity asset, fruits of commitment to conservation and tourism development should reach to all the people; therefore investment in the sector should cover the entire Northern Areas. Given the importance of the Northern Areas as a valuable storehouse of biological diversity, all people of the world should share the responsibility to maintain its integrity. However, at the end, it will depend on the knowledge, will and action of the local people, the real guardians, to manage their heritage, genetics and resources and it is up to us to protect it for the posterity.