Islamabad, 18 December 2021 (TDI): The economic section of the United States Embassy in Islamabad organized a session with different organizations to promote sustainable tourism in the region of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The US Embassy collaborated with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the regional intergovernmental knowledge center. Moreover, the United Nations Development Program in Pakistan (UNDP) is also part of the program. Their goal is to help the tourism of Gilgit-Baltistan.
All of them will work to promote the development of sustainable tourism for the mountainous region in Pakistan. Gilgit-Baltistan has immense potential in terms of tourism.
Gilgit-Baltistan
Gilgit Baltistan is a region located in the north of Pakistan. This territory is home to some of the highest mountains of the World. Moreover, it is home to five of the eight-thousanders.
The eight-thousanders are a group of 14 mountains that can reach 8,000m above sea level. Most of them are in the Himalayan mountain range and the rest are in the Karakoram mountain range of Asia.
It is a unique landscape that attracts tourists, especially mountaineers and trekkers. In this way, the US Embassy with the participation of the WWF, UNDP-Pakistan, and regional intergovernmental knowledge center wants to help the region.
WWF in Pakistan
The WWF is an international organization that helps local communities. It helps the communities to conserve natural resources, transform markets and policies, protect and restore species and their habitats.
Moreover, the organization promotes values that are respectful to nature. The WWF collaborates with more than 1 million supporters in the US and 5 million globally with different communities, companies, and governments.
It started a collaboration with Pakistan in 1970, and its goal was to create a future where people live in harmony with nature. It is an organization that bridges the awareness and knowledge gaps that the government doesn’t procure.
Nowadays, it is undeniable that human activities put more pressure on nature than ever before, but it is on humans to fix the damage caused.
UNDP Pakistan
The United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) is the United Nations Agency that deals with development worldwide. The program exists in 170 countries, and Pakistan is one of those countries.
The UNDP is the section of the UN that works on three specific areas of development.; eradicating poverty, structural transformations, and building resilience. Actually in Pakistan, the UNDP works to eradicate poverty, and also during the COVID-19 pandemic, it collaborated with the government and gives assistance to the vulnerable population.
Working with the US Embassy to promote sustainable tourism is an activity that follows their new agenda for sustainable goals SDGs. Those goals are to reach sustainability in every sector of development. They are; life on land, life below water, sustainable cities, and more.
