Why did the participants of a workshop discussing the future of the spectacular Khunjerab National Park (in Northern Pakistan) recommend that a rigid system be adopted which would ban the local villagers' traditional access to grazing lands within what is today the Park area?
Knjerab National Park in the Karakoram mountains of Northern Pakistan was set up by the Pakistani Government in 1975. Adjacent to the Taxkorgan Wildlife Reserve in China, the 2,600 sq km park is one of the highest in the world. Scenically attractive, it is a sanctuary for many high-altitude mammals in need of protection, the foremost among them being the Marco Polo sheep, the snow leopard and the Tibetan wild ass.
When it was established, the Park's main purpose was to provide protection for its dwindling wildlife populations. Illegal hunting was considered the main threat to these species, as well as habitat deterioration from excessive grazing and fuelwood collection. During the construction of the Karakoram Highway in the late 1960s, the local population of Marco Polo sheep was nearly exterminated by poaching, mainly by Pakistani road crews and security personnel. It is reported that non-resident government officials also participated in the decimation of the sheep population near the Pakistan-China pass. This was a sharp departure from earlier times when hunting control was exercised by the Mix of Hunza.
Despite its being declared a national park, however, nothing was done to actually develop Khunjerab. Following reports of environmental degradation from overgrazing, forest-cutting and poaching, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was finally asked by the Government to study the Park's ecological status, including land-use practices, and make recommendations for a plan to manage the park. I surveyed Khunjerab in the autumn of 1988 as part of the IUCN study. IUCN's report reached the conclusion that the human-nature conflict in the Park was not excessive. It recommended that the area be enlarged and developed into a multipurpose conservation area (or biosphere reserve) which would properly integrate environmental needs and the local people's use of the area.