Disclaimer note - WWF - Pakistan

Detailed Ecological Assessment Report 2008 – Keenjhar Lake
and often shelter biodiversity of global importance by virtue of being, in general,
relatively undisturbed ecosystems. The loss of these ecosystems would therefore
suggest potential local, national and global welfare losses. Yet, quantifying those
losses in as accurate a manner as possible, and actually using them to make
more informed decisions about land use and land conversion, is a task of
phenomenal proportions. Economic values associated with healthy mangrove
ecosystems can however be generated through economic analysis that attempts
to measure the use and non-use values of these ecosystems.
Coastal areas of Pakistan in common and Keti Bunder and its adjoining areas in
particular are highly modified landscapes, supporting large, and of course, poor
populations. These areas are under enormous pressures of all sorts not only
because of the large numbers of inhabitants who depend on the resources from
these areas, but more so because of indiscriminate conversion of these areas to
other land uses.
3.7.6 Threats and recommendations
There were no specific threats or recommendations submitted in the report.
However the following conclusion was e:
The most important aquatic invertebrates in the Keti Bunder area are the shrimps,
crabs and oysters. Shrimps form the backbone of marine fisheries industry of
Pakistan and earn a large amount of foreign exchange. The management of
responsible and sustainable fisheries in the coastal areas and Indus delta has
direct impact on the economy of the country. Fishing activities should be
streamlined so that the coastal populations inhabiting the area receive maximum
benefits and their socio-economic conditions can be improved. These biological
resources need protection against inappropriate uses and overexploitation. A large
amount of data is available on shrimps. It has been estimated that annual average
catch of shrimps associated with mangrove forest at Sindh coast surpasses
thousands of tons. When expressed on the basis of per km coastline length, this
production is estimated at around hundred tons per kilometer in Sindh as
compared to one ton per kilometer in Balochistan. The underlying cause of this
productivity in Sindh water is the wealth of extensive mangroves. To sustain the
marine fishery the man-agreement and rehabilitation of the mangroves is
imperative.
Finally it is imperative to note that the value assignments for direct and indirect
uses of ecosystem goods and services can be very useful in order to establish
the physical/ecological linkages that make such uses possible and also partially
measure the derived economic benefits from these uses. Knowing these values,
and by incorporating the benefits and costs of environmental effects into an
analysis of development alternatives, we are better positioned to decide which
alternative would provide the largest net benefit to society. Similar analyses are
becoming widespread and many examples relevant for wetland services are
available (Hamilton et al., 1989; Ruitenbeek, 1992; Barbier and Strand, 2000;
Cesar et al., 1997; to name a few relevant to coastal areas).
Although there are few directly marketed products from mangroves of Keti
Bunder, local coastal communities continue to depend on mangroves for a range
of goods such as fuel, wood, shellfish and on ecosystem services such as
maintenance of the productivity of important estuarine dependent fisheries, water
quality regulation, flood reduction and shoreline stability just as in the other
mangroves of the world. Communities further inland similarly depend on many of
these same products, transported to markets as finished or primary products.
WWF Pakistan – Indus for All Programme Page 110 of 188