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WCC 2016 Res 052 - Progress Report

General information
IUCN Constituencies implementing this Resolution
IUCN Members: 
World Wide Fund - Pakistan ( WWF ) / Pakistan
Trust for Conservation of Coastal Resources ( TCCR ) / Pakistan
National Council for Conservation of Wildlife, Ministry of Climate Change ( NCCW ) / Pakistan
Indus Earth Trust ( IET ) / Pakistan
IUCN Commissions: 
No Commissions are/have been involved
IUCN Secretariat: 
Yes
Other non-IUCN related organisations: 
Balochistan Wildlife Department, Government of Balochistan
Implementation
Indicate which actions have been carried out to implement this Resolution : 
Convene stakeholders/Networking
Scientific/technical activities
Describe the results/achievements of the actions taken: 
In 2015, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through its National Coordinating Body (NCB) of Mangroves for the Future (MFF) Programme Pakistan, headed by Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), Government of Pakistan decided to set up a Working Group to work towards possible MPAs. This group recommended four potential sites including Astola Island in Pakistan. Subsequently, a motion submitted by the Pakistan National Committee was adopted at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, 2016, calling for declaration of Astola Island as MPA in Pakistan. Subsequently, the Astola island was declared the first Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Pakistan on June 15, 2017.

To support the management planning of Astola MPA, IUCN-MFF Pakistan conducted this Ecological Baseline and Resource Use Survey (EBRU Survey) financially assisted by Waitt Foundation under The Rapid Ocean Conservation (ROC) Grants Programme. This study is co-financed by Mangroves for the Future (MFF) Programme of IUCN Pakistan.

In order to undertake this comprehensive survey, a number of government agencies and academic institutes along with a team of 26 experts with diverse backgrounds and expertise participated. The report outlines that the island is a home to unique wildlife as many of marine and terrestrial animals and plants have been reported from it. Report shows that the island supports large number of birds as 61 species were recorded during the survey. Moreover, 7 species of reptiles, have been recorded among them Sub-species of Saw-scaled viper - endemic to the island and threatened species of green turtle nesting there are of special concern. It is worth mentioning that during the study 1745 nests were counted at three nesting beaches of the island in February. It also reveals 5 species of cetaceans are found in the area which includes Indo-Pacific finless porpoise and endangered Arabian Sea humpback whale – a rarest marine mammal only found in Arabian Sea. Moreover, 27 species of fishes, 3 species of rodents and 11 species of hard corals were found at the island. The area is also home to 30 species of vegetation and 3 species of seaweeds. These weeds were found in a juvenile stage, therefore, they were not identified correctly.

Since, multiple stakeholders are involved to the future management of Astola MPA, they were need to be engaged in the consultative process. In this regard, IUCN Pakistan has taken steps for establishment a ecological baseline of Astola Island MPA and as next step, IUCN organized a consultative workshop on management planning workshop on Astola MPA on 03-04 May 2018 at Karachi. All the relevant stakeholders belonging to provincial and federal government and civil society attended the workshop including the regional Protected Area experts. During the workshop, the findings of socio-ecological baseline were shared and the future course of action for preparation of management plan of Astola MPA was discussed. Along with the stakeholders’ sensitization and management planning of Astola Island MPA, identification and outline development of National Coastal/Marine Initiative was also carried out.
What challenges/obstacles have been encountered in the implementation of this Resolution and how were they overcome : 
1. Resource constraints, 2. Consecutive transfers of key positions in relevant Government agencies caused repeated efforts for advocacy, knowledge sharing and consensus building.
Briefly describe what future actions are needed for the implementation of this Resolution: 
1. Support to Balochistan Wildlife Department and Ministry of Climate Change in the development of "Management Plan of Astola Island MPA"
2. Resource hunting for the support to the implimentation of Astola Management Plan.
3. Capacoty building of relevant Government agencies for the sustainable management of Astola Island MPA.
4. Promotion of Responsible Tourism / Ecotourism for connecting community alternative livelihood with the flourishing Astola Island MPA.
Are these actions planned for yet: 
No
Status of implementation
Status of implementation for this Resolution: 
Completed: resolution/recommendation fully implemented.
Additional information