Federal Minister for
Climate Change Senator Mushahidullah Khan is representing Pakistan at
Conference of Parties session 13 to Combat Desertification in China.
He highlighted while addressing to
high-level segment of conference that Pakistan is severely affected by land
desertification and degradation like many other countries. About 80 percent
area of the country is arid or semi arid and is prone to land degradation. He
further said two third of its human population depends on these dry lands for
their livelihood.
He also said that the country has a fast
growing population of 210 millions people. Most of the rural population
survives on the fragile rain fed lands prone to desertification. Pakistan
recognizes the seriousness problem of land degradation and desertification and
has developed its national action program to fight the problem. The government
of Pakistan is implementing Sustainable Land Management Program to combat
desertification in collaboration with the provincial government. This program
is jointly funded by Global Environment Facility, United Nations Development
Program and Government of Pakistan.