ECOCLUB Blogs™

World Environment Day June 5th, 2009 was celebrated through the facilitation of Rehmat Capacity Building Centre and CAMAT [Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism] in Chitral town, Pakistan with objective to keep Chitral clean, green and tidy. Broader community representatives, NGO heads, political leadership and students attended the seminar. The participants were stressed to come forward for the protection of Chitral’s natural environment and ecology they way they take care of their own families. Earth is like mother taking all of us in its cradle. The whole community has the responsibility to keep its health clean and tidy so that it can improve the standard of their own health and life standard. The speakers also emphasized the need to make the environmental education as integral part of the curriculum right from the primary class.Prince Siraj Ulmulk presided over the session and impressed upon the participants to take much care of the beauty and natural environment of Hindukush region.Please visit the following website link to know more about the Chitral enviroment dayhttp://www.unep.org/wed/2009/english/conte...sia_pacific.asp

CAMAT [Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism] celebrated Worldwide Day for Responsible Tourism, June 2nd, 2009, in Mountain Inn, Chitral town with a goal to create awareness about “Tourism and Water Resources: Impacts, Responsibilities and Solutions with a Future”. Scholars, religious leadership, NGO representatives, members of Kalash and Khow communities presented papers on the following themes: • The impacts of tourism development on water resources•Without water no tourism is possible•How to preserve and enhance water resources e.g. lake, ocean, river, waterfalls etc. by responsible tourism development?•Can responsible tourism development help improving accessibility for people with drinking water?•Tourism in the light of Islamic teachingsProblems of water pollution highlighted and concerns about receding glaciers in the Hindukush region were recorded. It was stressed that lakes, springs, streams, rivers and glaciers must be protected in order to showcase northern Pakistan as an attractive tourist destination in the future. If water resources are degraded, then the very basis of tourism will be undermined and serious healthcare issues involving jaundice, typhoid and diarrhea etc will surface in the host communities. Thus major responsibilities, as the forum pointed out, lie with tourism institutions, hotel owners, transporters, guides and other primary tourism stakeholders, who must fall in love...

The people of northern Chitral celebrated Jashan-e-Qaqlasht, the traditional festival, from April 24-27. The commuinities around the Qaqlasht plateatu participated with great enthusiams. Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, Sarhad Tourism Corporation and Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism sponsored the event through joint venture. The festival consisted of cultural and sporting events. The sporting events were: traditional free style polo, tug of war, football, vollyball, shot putt, marksmanship with muzzle-loader gun, paragliding and marathon race and so on. The cultural activities included day and night musical programmes, poetry session, school speesh contests and the like.The major objective of the festival is to promote tourism related enterprises and business opportunities beside providing entertainment and affording enabling environment to the local communities particularly youngsters so that in the field of sport and culture they will be able to perform in a better manner.

Global warming is a real discomforting phenomenon with measurable negative impacts for the less developed and remote regions of the world like Chitral, northern Pakistan. Climatic changes experienced by Chitrali locals in recent years have affected villages and brought about ˜alluvial fans [fan-shaped deposits of water-transported material]. Recently, the village of Sonoghor was engulfed by an enormous mud slide caused by a glacier breaking up and wiping out 100 households. Most believe the catastrophe to be linked to the effects of global warming which has extended its tentacles to remote and unspoiled regions like Chitral. The glacier melted and thinned the walls around the many water reservoirs on the glacier which, in turn, melted given the increase in temperatures.Another incident occurred following an unexpected avalanche at Washeej village in the Torkhow valley, destroying many households and killing 50 people. The incident is also linked to global warming.To counter natural calamities like these, an awareness campaign needs to be mounted among Chitrali locals, disseminated by environmental, ecological education and research. There is a saying in Khowar language ‘nadanioche kani baraba’, [ignorance and blindness are the same]. We can cure our social blindness and raise awareness for the protection of our environment only...

CAMAT was established in 1998 by a wide spectrum of tourism stakeholders for the promotion of ecotourism in Chitral and Northern Areas. It is not-for-profit registered tourism company. The objective of the association is to diversify people’s livelihood opportunities by creating off-farm job opportunities so that pressure on land resources will decrease and natural biodiversity and ecology will restore. From 2003-7, CAMAT worked through the financial and technical support of UNESCO with a project titled ‘promotion of ecotourism in the mountainous region of Central and South Asia’. The project had eight partners from Central and South Asia. In Pakistan the project rested with CAMAT, which implemented the activities under the following themes to achieve the project's broader objectives: Protection of traditional cultureProtection of natural environmentCapacity buildingNetwork buildingAdvocacy campaign Though UNESCO project came to an end, CAMAT is continuing its activities mostly by the voluntary support of its Board of Directors and cultural groups and natural club throughout the Chitral district. We would like the like-minded NGOs around the world to come forward and support CAMAT in its efforts to protect the virgin natural environment and traditional culture of both the Kalash and Khow communities. CAMAT’s BoD and the Kalash and Khow...

Given the turbulent state of affairs, Pakistan received fewer tourists as compared to years in the past. We still expect less turn out of tourists—both national and international ones—in the year 2009. However, it is realized that tourism industry is very much affected by the tense situation at national and international level, which are in many ways outside the influence of the local communities, who always bear the brunt of such untoward situation. Pakistan has consistently being projected as a turbulent destination by tour operators, tourism companies and governments around the world because of the prevailing condition in the country. This is where things take adverse turn for the people in those region where tourism has been a thriving industry in the past and people invested in the invested in improving tourism infrastructure within their given financial resources but for nothing to earn in return. In the meantime, social projects linked with tourism industry have also suffered a serious setback. Whatever is the capacity of the local indigenous communities, they do not spare their efforts to correct things. Let’s hope for the best in the years to come and to work with great commitment in order to promote ecotourism in the...

Kalash communities in Chitral are considered to be the remnant of the army of Alexander the Great. They entertain rich and colouful culture. To them festival is not something as entertainment. Rather it is a part of thier faith and workship. Next Chilimjosht will fall in the month of May when spring will sweep through the Chitral district. It is such a beautiful time to visit Chitral in general and the Kalash valley in particular. Contact us to make your visit enjoyable ane entertaining.

The village Booni is situated 80km to the north of Chitral town. It is the largest village in the entire Chitral district and is famous for its fresh fruits, cool orchards and friendly, hospitable and peace-loving people. In Booni, tourists will find guesthouses where traditional food will be served. The village is surrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush which that provide opportunities for both one-day and long-distance trekking. Here in this village paragliding has become a popular sport amongst the youngsters. They are looking forward and patronize the sport and to turn into a potential attraction for tourists in the years to come.

Jashan-e-Qaqlasht 2008, the cultural and sporting festival of the people of northern Chitral came to an end by April 27. The festival was participated by a great many people living the the vacinity of Qaqlasht plateau with their diverse cultural expression. The objectives of the festival were to protect and promote the cultural heritage of Chitral, to encourage the culture of entrepreneurship for tourism stakeholders and last but not least to provide an enabling environment to the local artists and players to perform to the crowd.The three days festival went pretty smoothly and all walks of life participated. As it was a week end so people's participation ran into 10000. You can see some of the pictures uploaded to the website to know about the recently organised Qaqlasht festival 2008