Abbottabad Conservation Strategy website developed by SDNP launched

January 14, 2003

The Abbottabad Conservation Strategy (ACS) envisages the promotion of sustainable development of natural resources and the preservation of the living environment and matters related to it. Its website (http://acs.iucnp.org/) was launched on January 14, 2003 during the meeting of the multi-stakeholder ACS District Roundtable. They included civil society NGOs, academia, media, community based organizations, special interest groups and the government.

Developed by the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) Pakistan, this website describes its link with the devolution plan of the Government of Pakistan, and the process involved in developing the ACS. Details of its activities, consultations, projects, and status of seventeen sectoral strategy papers are available online.

Barrister Javed Abbasi, District Naib Nazim and Jamil Ahmed, District Coordination Officer spoke on the occasion and stated that this website would put Abbottabad district at the forefront of development world by posting the district's sustainable development information within the public domain.

In his keynote address, Barrister Javed Abbasi appreciated the initiative undertaken as part of the ACS process and said it would link and market the potential of Abbottabad amongst the international donors as well as local investors. He said that the ACS, which is in the process of approval, would set the direction to achieve an equitable sustainable development in the district. He reiterated the intention of district government to get approval of the ACS through District Assembly as the sustainable development vision of the district was envisaged under Local Government Ordinance 2001.