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[FONT=Courier New]I do not know if this article fits here but its society and culture. It is sad that Arabs are allowed to hunt without any control the Houbara Bustard a bird if not protected soon which wil become extinct as a visitor to Pakistan. And when the Arabs can no longer hunt it they wil no longer visit Pakistan so therefore any economic benefits they bring will stop and Pakistan will be washed away like dirt during a bath. The authorities are to weak and easily bribed - a story which is heard at every level within every sector, nothing new there! The Arabs do bring econmic benefits, minor ones but enough to make some people welcome them. The worst thing is that the Aarabs shoot and hunt almost anything and in such a quantity that not only Houbara’s are losing out but Gazelles, Hares, Partridges and so many other rare species. Wildlife should be a part of our natural areas not a historical aspect. Read the article below.
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[FONT=Courier New]Big-game hunting is banned in Pakistan by government regulations,
except community-controlled areas with an existing limitation on
exact kinds and numbers of species as well as countries they can be
exported in. There is decline in such species as cranes, geese,
storks, pelicans, and houbara bustards- and these are just migratory
birds. The illegal hunting is leading to the continuous loss,
fragmentation and degradation of natural habitats that include
forests, rangelands, and freshwater and marine ecosystem. Some
species in Pakistan are already extinct, and many are internationally
threatened. The 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals classifies
37 species and 14 sub-species of mammals that occur in Pakistan as
internationally threatened or near-threatened. The Red List is based
upon field data that is more than 20 years old and needs to be re-
assessed. One can only imagine how the situation with endangered
species has changed during these years. The country also provides
critical habitat to 25 internationally threatened bird species and 10
internationally threatened reptiles.
There are a lot of organizations that were formed to protest the
illegal hunting and preserve the wildlife. This includes National
Council for Conservation of Wildlife (NCCW), established in 1974 and
supported by the UN, which breaks into three groups: Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITIES), Convention on Wetland of International Importance
Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar) and Convention on the
Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Some of
other organizations not mentioned that play important roles in
fighting against illegal hunting are WWF-Pakistan, Torghar
Conservation Project (TCP), DAWN independent newspaper, and National
Avian Research Center and Houbara Foundation in Pakistan. Also, the
Pakistani government enacted the Wildlife Conservation and
Preservation Act of 1975, ratified the Convention of Biological
Diversity, and in 1994 has also prepared a Biodiversity Action Plan.
Due to corruption a lot of the programs are not enforced the way that
they should be. One important issue today is the slow disappearance
of the houbara bustard, a migratory bird that flies to Pakistan from
former Soviet territory. The bird had been hunted in the Middle East
to the point of near-extinction by the nineteen-sixties, and by 1975
it was declared an endangered species in Pakistan. In 1983 at an
international wildlife symposium in Peshawar, Pakistan, it was agreed
that Pakistan’s migratory houbara population was numbered somewhere
between twenty and twenty-five thousand birds and a more recent data
gathered by the DAWN newspaper showed that in 2002 it was around
thirty thousand birds.The legal hunting on hubara bustards implies
purchasing a permit license, the amount of which differs throughout
the regions of Pakistan. According to independent Dawn newspaper, the
Punjab wildlife department along with banning hunting of houbara
bustard requires “to pay Rs5,000 ( approximately $90.5 as of Dec.4
2003 rate) for each bird as a compensatory amount, besides paying as
much and surrendering hunting equipment and vehicles”.
[FONT=Courier New]http://www.dawn.com/2003/10/26/local29.htm](http://www.dawn.com/2003/10/26/local29.htm)[FONT=Courier New] (12/01/2003) However,
according to the same article, this rule has been relaxed by the
Department itself recently to accommodate Arab dignitaries, who set
up fourteen hunting camps in this part of the country. The bird is
widely popular among Arab hunters due to traditional beliefs,
starting with the old customs and traditions and ending with
houbara’s meat qualities, which Arabs consider to be aphrodisiac
while in reality it is diuretic. This outrageous instance, however,
was ignored by Houbara foundation, one of the most resourceful NGOs
in the country aimed to protect the prey bird and, moreover, the
local police even arranged security camps for the protection of…
foreign hunters. When asked for the reason of the license
cancellation for Arab hunters the department officials told that they
were given “the fee equivalent to the sum submitted by local hunters
in the province against the cancellation of their permits.”
[FONT=Courier New]http://www.dawn.com/2003/10/26/local29.htm](http://www.dawn.com/2003/10/26/local29.htm)[FONT=Courier New] (12/01/2003) The
corruption and inability of government to regulate legal hunting
makes the preservation methods ineffective and increases the
incentive from local people for illegal hunting. There are a lot of
occurrences when there is no reliable data on both legal and illegal
hunting, which makes it hard to assess the progress made so far by
these programs. According to conservation officials, Arab hunting
parties are bagging at least six thousand birds a year, not taking
the smuggling into account, which is estimated to be around four
thousand birds a year. www.dawn.com/2002/01/15/nat26.htm (12/01/2003)
To meet the Arabian demand for houbara bustards seven thousand live
birds enter the UAE illegally and because of bad conditions of
detention and containment many of them die during the journey from
Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia.
According to researchers from the Abu Dhabi based, National Avian
Research Center (NARC) the decline in population of houbara bustard
is viewed not only as a result of hunting, but also as a destruction
of their wintering and breeding habitat. On the 28th of February 1995
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) became the first country in the world
to have tracked houbara bustard through satellite techniques both on
their northerly and southerly migrations. The research was done
through fitting a tiny satellite transmitter onto the back of the
bird and observing the route through the data processing computer in
France. The observation helped researchers to find out the different
routes of these birds and lead to an international agreement between
UAE and Kazakhstan, which allowed NARC researchers to travel to
Kazakhstan in the springs of both 1995 and 1996 during the houbara
breeding season. [FONT=Courier New]http://www.datadubai.com/satbus.htm](http://www.datadubai.com/satbus.htm)[FONT=Courier New] (12/02/2003)
Despite of the disappointment with short battery life that limited
the ability to observe birds, the researchers hoped this study would
help to detect the migratory route of houbara bustards that in its
turn would add to conservation effort. Knowing the exact location of
houbara’s migration will help to establish local programs related to
preserving these birds, more specifically, these efforts could
include diminishing farming and eliminating hunting for houbara.
Due to the large amounts of money involved, there is conflict between
conservationists and officials. According to unofficial estimates,
Arab sheikhs spend about ten to twenty million dollars per hunt on
houbara bustards. One of the excuses Pakistani government uses is
that sheikhs contribute to the local infrastructure development,
which could be contradicted by the private airports that are useless
for the local population and beneficial for sheikhs themselves, not
to mention mosques that no one uses anyway. Adding to that is the
destruction of the local ecosystem due to the massive killings of
animals, as sheikhs have to support their regular 300-people camps.
(Weaver, Mary Anne. “Hunting with the Sheikhs.” The New Yorker 14
Dec. 1992. Vol.68, Issue 43, p51) Many birds and animal species are
experiencing population decline because of illegal hunting for sport,
meat & trade. There is a strong tradition of hunting in Pakistan and
the impact of hunters has increased with the spread of modern weapons
and great mobility. Virtually all-large mammals have declined in
number and their range has been reduced. And if Pakistan wants to
preserve its rich biodiversity, it must enforce some conservation and
management.
In 1975 Pakistani government enacted the Wildlife Conservation and
Preservation Act. After that it also ratified the Convention of
Biological Diversity, and in 1994 it has also prepared the
Biodeviersity Action Plan.
In 1974 there was an establishmet of National Council for Consevation
of Wildlife (NCCW), which is supported by the UN and implemented
three UN Conventions: Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Convention on Wetland of
International Importance Especiall as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar), and
Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
Pakistani prohibits exports of most species and puts export limits on
some. There is a limit on exporting houbara bustards from Pakistan,
it is 200 birds per hunting party, which comes to 4800 birds annually.
Unofficial numbers show that Arab sheikhs spend from 10 to 20 million
dollars per hunt. Average annual income in Pakistan is $470, which is
good basis for the corruption as country’s standards of living are
low. Hunting is included into agriculture sector in the Pakistani GDP
where it accounts for 25-27%.
The 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals classifies 37 species
and 14 sub-species of mammals that occur in Pakistan as
internationally threatened or near-threatened. Pakistan also provides
habitat for 25 internationally bird species and 10 internationally
threatened reptiles. By nineteen-sixties houbara bustard was hunted
to the point of near-extinction in the Middle East, and by 1975 it
was declared an endangered species in Pakistan. Besides houbara,
other major projects for bio-diversity conservation in Pakitan are:
Chilgoza Forests and Suleman Markhor, Ibex of the Bar Valley,
Wetlands, migratory birds of Chitral, and Khunjerb National Park.
According to the National Avian Research Centre in Abu Dhabi, with
houbara’s birth rate of 5 per cent a year and if number of houbara
keeps decreasing at the same rate with more than 6,000 being bagged
by hunting parties and more than 4000 smuggled out of country, the
worst scenario is that the houbara bustard would dissapear as the
species by 2015.
Houbara hunting is deeply ingrained into Arab culture and they have
been fascinated by it for hundreds of years. According to
www.alshindagah.com, the descriptions of the houbara hunting date as
far back as seven hundred years ago. Besides, Arabs consider
houbara’s meat to be an aphrodisiac, while in reality it is diuretic.