Govt sets aside Rs100m for Islamabad Zoo in PSPD 2022-23.

ISLAMABAD -- The federal government has allocated Rs100 million under Public Service Development Programme (PSDP) for Climate Change Division' new scheme in the fiscal year 2022-23 to establish a wildlife conservation and information centre at the old Islamabad Zoo.

The allocated amount of millions of rupees in the Fiscal Year 2022-23 focused on initiating development work on the only Zoo of the capital that went nonfunctional due to poor care and management of the wildlife.

The wildlife conservation centre as proposed by the ministry would be a modern facility having advanced technological solutions to impart wildlife information to its visitors.

The Ministry overall got the allocation of Rs9.6 billion for it's new and ongoing projects that would focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation endeavors to purge the country from adverse impacts of environmental degradation and global warming.

According to a budgetary document, the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) Planned Activities for Fiscal Year 2022-23 in Climate Change Division focused on Disaster Risk Management, Early Warning Systems, Availability of clean drinking water in Pakistan, Transition towards environmentally resilient Pakistan through adaptation and mitigation targeting ecological initiatives consistent with the Pakistan's nationally determined contributions (NDCs) objectives, Attaining Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) to generate eco-system services and provide additional support to mitigation of GHG in Pakistan, Promote eco-tourism and improve the carbon sinking capacity and to establish real time monitoring of ambient air quality through establishment of monitoring stations, in periodic manner, throughout Islamabad.

The amount of Rs 9.5 billion has been allocated for ongoing schemes while 100 million were earmarked for a new scheme in the PSDP 2022-23. The ongoing schemes include Capacity Building on Water Quality Monitoring and SDG 6 (6.1) Reporting at a cost of Rs 23 million; Climate Resilient Urban Human Settlements at Unit at an amount of Rs 19 million was earmarked. The maximum allocations were earmarked for Upscaling of Green Pakistan Programme (Revised) at a cost of Rs 9.4 billion.

An amount of Rs 100 million were allocated for the much awaited Islamabad Zoo project that would be transformed into a wildlife sanctuary and animal preserve zone. In the Sectoral...