6. 2. Implications for the Ucchali management plan


Whilst the above observations may be of general relevance for wetland management in Pakistan and elsewhere, they also indicate the need to revise the existing management plan for the Ucchali complex. Basically, the new Ucchali management plan should first include provisions to implement the proposals made by villagers of Dhadar, Ucchali and Ugali. Next, the participatory planning process should be extended to other villages located around lakes Ucchali, Khabbaki and Jahlar, in order to tailor the wetland management schemes to local circumstances.


a) Revise management plan on the basis of PRA outputs from Dhadar, Ucchali and Ugali.

The local communities in Ucchali, Ugali and Dhadar are willing to enter into agreements with appropriate external agencies to manage the wetlands, with the help of adequate financial and technical assistance or proper compensation for lost land. Whilst securing livelihoods, health and well being were the dominant preoccupations, several villagers also expressed pride in the fact that the overwintering birds travelled from afar and added colour to the lake. They are willing to take care of the wetlands' ecology provided their legal and traditional rights are recognised and they receive compensation for their losses.The participatory planning process revealed not only the villagers ability to identify problems but also elicited a range of management options to reconcile the conflicting interests between local people and outside conservationists. Moreover, the villagers management scenarios also contained ideas for building appropriate local institutions and resource user groups or for strengthening existing ones e.g. Forest protection committees in Ucchali watersheds.

Before completing the entire participatory planning in the other villages of the Ucchali complex, WWF-Pakistan and the Punjab Wildlife Department could:


  • Incorporate the analysis and proposals made by the three village communities in the existing mangement plan (see section 5).

  • Clarify legal matters (e.g. rights on land under the lakes) and help solve legal conflicts before declaring the Ucchali complex a Ramsar site.

  • Encourage linkages between local communities and the different public sector departments that need to be brought together to defuse the present conflict of interest and implement a more sustainable wetland management(eg. Social Forestry Dept, Soil conservation Dept, Wildlife Conservation Dept, Education...).

  • Facilitate the emergence of joint management schemes ( Box 17 ) between government departments and village institutions and resource user groups.e.g. for tree plantations around lake Ucchali. Detailed feasibility studies on some of the proposed management options (eg. soil desalinisation around Ucchali lake) could also be carried out as jointly managed research programmes between formal sector scientists and farmers.

  • Obtain funds from external and internal sources to finance some of the management options identified by villagers on a priority basis. Several donors e.g.the UK's ODA are currently interested in funding community planned conservation projects. Similarly, WWF-International has here an opportunity to allocate conservation funds on the basis of management plans that have grown out of local level dialogues rather than through the more conventional top-down approach.


b) Extending participatory planning to the whole of the Ucchali complex.

The existing management plan should also be revised to include provisions and funds to extend the participatory palnning process to lake Jahlar and the remaining villages around lakes Ucchali and Khabbaki. The overall approach should be designed to foster an enabling process whereby village communities analyse, plan and act on the basis of their own knowledge, priorities and diverse needs. The more linear, sequential conservation approach based on plan formulation in year 1 followed by implementation and then monitoring in years 2 and 3 should be replaced by a participatory process that integrates, in an iterative manner, planning with the simultaneous implementation of the wetland management schemes. Key steps in this process include


  • assisting the villagers in forming or strengthening their grass root Village Organizations(VOs) and coalition/clusters of VOs for future sustainable development.

  • assisting those VOs in developing their village resource and wetland management plans for use as a planning document.The problem-solution matrices and management options for the lakes that have already been generated by Dhadar, Ucchali and Ugali villages may be used to catalyse similar interactive dialogues in other villages.


In many places where PRA planning processes have been initiated more and more local people are taking an active role in analysis and presentation. Village extensionists conduct complete participatory analyses with no outside help; villagers conduct transects, interview other villagers, draw maps, observe and produce plans. Other potential researchers include school teachers, students, local health volunteers etc. For reasons of equity, cost-effectiveness and sustainability it is important that this bottom up approach be adopted in the next phases of management plan formulation and implementation.


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