Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) in the Himalayas: A ‘Cookbook’ for Emerging IES Practitioners in the Region

Step

Action

Step 1: Community organization

• Establish a Valley Conservation Committee (VCC) • Register the VCC with local government as per law of the land

Step 2: Conservation Plan

• Facilitate community to develop their Conservation Plan • Conservation Plan approved by District Conservation Committee (DCC, headed by Deputy Commissioner) • Approved Conservation Plan is implemented by VCC with technical assistance from custodian department, line agencies and relevant private organizations • Implementation of conservation plan monitored by DCC • Wildlife census held and census report presented in DCC (for recommendations) • Gilgit-Baltistan Wildlife Management Board (GBWMB) allocates tags/ licences to conservation communities (meeting the criteria) • National Council for Conservation of Wildlife (NCCW) approves hunting tags • Group presentation at Safari Club International for bidding of coveted trophies • Hunting licences marketed to hunters

Step 3: Certification

Step 4: Marketing of trophies

Step 5: Tag confirmation

• NCCWand GBWMBmeetings to confirm tag allocation to communities • Communities informed of their allocations

Step 6: Facilitation

• Identification of trophy animal(s) • Local hospitality and facilitation • Custodian department for regulation in line with trophy hunting procedures.

Table 7. Process of setting up the CTHP.

The programme initially focused on the Siberian ibex (Capra ibex sibirica) but at a later stage, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other conservation organizations extended the programme to conservation communities in Gilgit-Baltistan and other parts of Pakistan for other game species. At the request of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and IUCN, in 1997 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) allowed Pakistan to authorize Markhor trophy hunting on the condition that the programme involve local communities in conservation and management

of Markhor and other species. To address illicit hunting and poaching that endangered threatened species such as the Markhor from, WWF-Pakistan jointly with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) and the government of Gilgit-Baltistan (then called the Northern Areas Administration) initiated an IES scheme called the Community-based Trophy Hunting Programme (CTHP) in Bar Valley, Nagar district (Gilgit-Baltistan) in 1989. WWF and IUCN were instrumental in the IES design and set up. They introduced the concept, mobilized local communities to transform subsistence hunting into trophy hunting for livelihood, and built the

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Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) in the Himalayas