ISLAMABAD, OCT 09 (DNA) —”Chairperson, Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, Senator Sherry Rehman on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination to seriously consider exotic wildlife and flora species’ import impacts on biosphere beyond risks to human health.
The Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change met here with Senator Sherry Rehman in chair that led to a detailed discussion on the private member bill titled “The Pakistan Trade Control of Wild Fauna and Flora (Amendment) Bill, 2024” introduced by Senator Shahadat Awan during the Senate session on September 2nd which was referred to the Committee for consideration and submission of a report.
Senator, Sherry Rehman on the occasion highlighted that the exotic wild fauna species were being sold despite CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) convention restrictions in Rawalpindi’s market. She said the Ministry should devise a cogent definition of exotic and invasive species as the CITES Convention prohibits imports of alien and invasive species.
“The control of import and export of invasive species is the spirit of CITES. I am concerned about import of invasive species and absence of definition of invasive species which is a huge legislative deficit,” she added. Senator Rehman urged the Ministry to expand the scope of the existing legislation under CITES to not only keep the law confined to risks to human health but also extend it to the ecosystem damage anticipated due to exotic wild fauna and flora.
The mover Senator Shahadat Awan should have a focused discussion with the Ministry to remove all lacunas, the Chair said. She also directed Commissioner Islamabad who is also Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) to approach the Ministry of Climate Change which is the focal person on Rawal Dam matter and deferred the agenda pertaining to Rawal Dam pollution for the next meeting.
Commenting on the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Senator Sherry Rehman said the NDCs were ambitious targets but it was important to remember that it’s the 30th climate multilateral conference but the progress achieved so far was abysmal. “NDCs mean world commitment to reduce carbon emissions, the outcomes of the NDCs needs to be probed as the rest of the world has not done enough so far. We are facing highest global mean temperature exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold which is due to growing emissions,” she added.
All the senators and ministry officials as advocates should raise these points at all multilateral climate forums, she said. Additional Secretary, Ministry of Climate Change, Hammad Shamimi informed the committee that a national legislation was enacted under the CITES convention as Pakistan Trade Control of Wild Fauna and Flora Act as a national legislation.
“The amendment suggested by the Senator includes plants and animals whereas incorporation of pathogens is a contentious matter due to capacity constraints The definitions currently are available in the convention and through the amendment bill we intend to add a parallel definition that can cause ambiguity in the matter as exotic is a comprehensive term,” he said.
Senator Shahadat Awan said he had proposed amendments through Pakistan Trade Control of Wild Fauna and Flora (Amendment) Bill, 2024 so that the legislation should cater the import and export of invasive species. “Invasive species means plants animals, pathogens and organisms alien to an ecosystem that can cause economic, biological and environmental harm,” he said while reading out the definition proposed in the Bill.
He pointed out that the matter came to the limelight after the Fatima Jinnah Park issue of removing paper mulberry trees that caused huge environmental damage and risk to human health. The Senator agreed to the amendments as guided by the ministry officials namely, the removal of pathogens proposed alongwith flora and fauna, withdrawal of addition of invasive as part of the bill and others.
Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani said the pathogens and viruses are microscopic organisms that cannot be controlled whereas the legislation should not be restricted to wild animals alone.
“The term invasive needs to be clarified. We need to introduce invasive term which refers to elements or objects harmful for the biological life,” he said.
Director General, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), Farzana Altaf Shah said the Amendment Bill would cause overlapping with many animal and plant quarantine laws that were already enforced. Senator Bushra Anjum Butt said the law was already covering everything and new amendments would bring repetition of information whereas the forum should focus on implementation of this law.
Executive Director, Global Change Impact Studies Center (GCISC), Arif Goheer briefed the forum on the preparations of the NDCs document so far and apprised that the NDCs revised document was underway.
“Pakistan’s first NDCs was submitted in 2016 that pledged to reduce 20% of its emissions projected till 2030 and revised it in 2021 by pledging 50% reduction in carbon emission with 35% conditional and 15% unconditional contributions,” he added. Under the NDC, he said the provincial committees have been made with clear representation of provincial departments and academia.
The third NDCs document would be different from the previous ones with broadened scope of emissions’ reduction agenda including sectoral emissions as part of mitigation as well as adaptation agendas. Additional Secretary Ministry of Climate Change, Zulfiqar Younas briefed the forum on the Ministry’s COP29 preparations. He informed that a vibrant pavilion was being prepared with the aim to convene international speakers at 30 different planned events. —DNA
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