"SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF MANGROVES THROUGH LOCAL COMMUNITIES PARTICIPATION IN INDUS DELTA"

By: M. Tahir Qureshi,
Director Coastal Eco-System Unit,
IUCN-Pakistan

1. Background and introduction

The IUCN Report on "Global status of mangroves Ecosystem" maintains that 92 countries in tropical and subtropical regions are endowed with mangrove vegetation. However, they find their best expression both in terms of extent and crop quality (species diversity and growth) along sheltered coasts in the tropics where optimum site conditions for their development exist (Walsh 1974). Only during the early seventies, it has been realised that mangroves are highly productive and useful areas. This is because of the fact that mangrove forests not only provide a variety of commercially renewable resources but also play an important role in maintaining marine productivity through nutritional inputs to adjacent shallow channels and creek systems that constitute the primary habitat of a large number of aquatic species of commercial, subsistence and recreational value (Sarekumar and Thong 1960).

The Indus delta covers an area of some 600, 000 hectares stretching about 200 km to South of Karachi to beyond the India-Pakistan border. This is a very large area, comparable to the forested area of the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, the largest area of mangrove forest in the world. However, not all of the area in the Indus delta is covered by mangrove forest. There are 17 major creeks, extensive mud flats and about 160,000 hectares of mangroves forests; of these about 50,000 hectares can be classified as dense mangrove stands.

The most significant characteristic of Indus delta is that it receives an average of only about 220 mm of rainfall per year, and sometime no rainfall at all. The Sundarbans in contrast receive 10-20 times this amount. The Indus mangrove ecosystem was built up as a result of the freshwater and silts flows from the river Indus, and is critically dependent upon it. The shortage of rainfall, the high temperatures and the decreasing flows of freshwater down the Indus as a result of dams and barrages means that salinity levels in the creeks often exceeds that of sea water (45 ppt is common in comparison to the usual 35 ppt of sea water ). Under these conditions it is probably safe to say that Indus delta mangroves are the largest arid climate mangroves in the world.

It is only within the last decade s that the importance of the mangroves in Indus delta has become appreciated. Even today the attitude that the delta is a wasteland, with no economic importance persists- any freshwater released below the Kotri barrage is still considered by some as wasted. Probably the greatest economic importance comes from fisheries an indirect benefit. Since the mangrove provide food and shelter during larval stage of their life cycle for some 80% of the commercial species caught in Pakistans' water. Of greatest importance is the prawn and shrimps of which about 25,000 tonnes are caught annually. They make 68% of the value of Pakistans' nearly US dollars 100 million fish export income. Although not a significant timber resource, the mangroves are used by the coastal villagers for fuelwood and fodder.

The severest environmental stress which the mangroves are facing results from the reduction of freshwater flows down the Indus carrying with it reduced loads of silt and nutrients. Whilst mangroves, especially Avicennia spp:are able to survive in sea water without regular freshwater input, it is unlikely that they will thrive indefinitely. Apart from longer-term threats to the survival of Indus delta mangroves, there are pressures from over grazing and lopping for fuel wood, which result in stunted trees in some areas. Within the vicinity of Karachi there are pressures resulting from marine and industrial pollution into the sea.

2. Goals and objectives

The overall goal is the conservation and sustainable use of the resources in the coastal areas of Sindh. One of the objectives of the project is capacity building and institutional strengthening of the concerned governmental and non-governmental organisations for the management of mangrove ecosystem. This has included working with Sindh Forests Department, Sindh Fisheries Department, Port Harbour Authorities, NGO, Community Based organisation, coastal communities etc. Coastal community development works aim to improve the environmental conditions of coastal villages and creating awareness about threats to their natural resources.

3. Material and Method

The first phase of IUCN-Pakistan's Korangi Ecosystem project was set up in 1987 in an attempt to pull together available information about the ecosystem in a particular area of Indus delta on the Karachi coast. A series of studies were commissioned such as a rapid assessment of the industrial waste entering the creeks, marine pollution survey, and a baseline survey of social and public health conditions in the coastal villages.
This led to the second phase which started in 1991,again funded by NORAD which aims to develop a coastal management Plan for sustainable use of the mangroves along Karachi coast. The area has been chosen partly because it is the most extensive studied area in the Indus delta, and partly because it represents a microcosm of the Indus delta with a combination of environmental stress and opportunities.

Although multi-sectoral in its approach, the focus for this project is the mangroves replanting and their management. IUCN-Pakistan works with the Sindh Forests department who is carrying out replanting of blank areas with mangrove species, especially Rhizophora mucronata. The choice of this species can be seen as an attempt to reintroduce an indigenous species and to improve the commercial aspect of mangrove forestry in Indus delta. Together with R. mucronata, other species including Avicennia marina were planted as mud flats and in back water as shelter belts, linear and block plantations.

The second component of this project is the social forestry. This has an element of supplying seedlings of fruit, fodder and fuelwood producing trees to local villagers to provide an alternate supplies of these and take pressure off the mangroves. The other element of the social forestry programme is to encourage management of village mangrove plantations -both Avicennia for the fodder and Rhizophora for the fuelwood. Such village mangrove forestry has not been tried before in Pakistan and a number of factors need to be clarified such as management control of the mangroves by the villagers, and training of techniques in mangrove management.
This aspect of devising packages, which are socially and economically attractive to villagers, is fundamental to the approach. One of the spin-offs from this will be increased awareness of the importance of the mangroves and a greater incentive in their preservation. Already the people are linking the state of pollution, the degradation of some mangrove area process of attitude change.

4. Results and discussion

The forestry programme was backed up by the studies designed to improve our knowledge of the mangrove ecosystem. IUCN's role was in identifying the gaps, commissioning the various studies and conducting their implementation by other government and non-government agencies.
The Botany and Geology departments of Karachi University carried out a series of assessments of mangrove biomass and soil conditions in stands of mangroves exposed to different environmental stresses - exposure to wind and current, highlying areas with higher soil salinities, exposure to pollution and pressure from lopping and browsing. At the same time Zoological Survey Department of Pakistan surveyed the distribution of micro organism with these different mangrove stands and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) conducted a study on the impact of sea level rise on mangrove ecosystem in Indus delta.

An NGO, Shirkatgah carried out a resource survey, finding out from local communities details of the collection of fuel wood and fodder, fisheries and grazing along the Karachi coast.

The Space and Upper Atmospheric Commission (SUPARCO) have prepared a map of the area of 1: 50,000 based satellite SPOT imagery. This is the base map on which future management Plans will be plotted.

IUCN-Pakistan in collaboration with Sindh Forest Department replanted over 6000 hectares with various mangroves species in Indus delta successfully. The most important part of this work is the innovative planting and nursery techniques which have developed under the project and these are being applied within and outside Pakistan in Red Sea area, Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia.

Community development and environmental education are critical to the sustainable management of the mangrove ecosystem. Through a programme of community development, which tried to address some of the local needs in the villages and environmental education through local schools, by constituting the use of groups among the communities, it has observed the process of attitude change.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

1. Wise or sustainable use of natural resources depends upon people living in the villages nearby, people buying the resources from them, people discharging their waste into the surrounding environment, people making decisions about the area without ever having gone there. The people either directly or indirectly. The most important people to convince of the necessity to conserve the environment and natural resource are the local people whose livelihood often depends upon it.

2. In working with people, especially villagers who may be somewhat marginalised such as fishing communities, it is important to provide non-destructive economic uses of the resource rather than hopeful exhortation.

3. Wise use projects are by their very nature multi-sectoral. As a part of the first lesson the project should attempt to involve the sectors affected or influencing the natural resources as much as possible. One should recognise however, that direct actions may not always be possible and that the project's role may be more facilitative.

4. A fourth lesson may be the recognition that many of the environmental stresses are inevitable and that one can do little to reduce them. In the context of the Indus delta, the reality is that Indus is not the river it used to be when it reaches the sea. Increasingly, more freshwater will be used before it gets there as the population pressure increases the demand for drinking, industrial and agricultural water supply. The project should therefore be looking towards developing a strategy with this in mind, e.g. by planting species which are salt tolerant and by conducting study on impact of sea intrusion on mangroves ecosystem due to diversion of water from river Indus.