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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