Les liaisons fructueuses - RUIG-GIAN

The photo depicts numerous landslides adjacent to Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad and Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan
(population approximately 100,000). A majority of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake and ensuing
landslides. Rainfall, especially during the monsoon period continues to trigger massive landslides in the area.
Photo : Abdur Rauf Qureshi, IUCN Pakistan, 2007.
In our case, we had the opportunity to work with several
local partners : the AJK Forest Department, AJK
Planning and Development Department, both key
stakeholders in land use planning and natural resources
management. The latter provided office space to
the new IUCN-AJK programme coordinator, himself
a veteran forester with first hand know ledge of forests
and land use in the study area. We also had the opportunity
to engage several University of Muzaffarabad
geology students who had just gained access to new
university facilities after their building had entirely
collapsed, killing over 200 students. There were no remaining
geological maps and none of the students had
access to geographic information system (GIS). During
my second visit to the region, and accompanied
by a young geologist from the University of Lausanne,
we were able to provide some maps and GIS training
to the local partners and geology students.
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