Karachi: Mangroves are being planted over 500 hectares along the Korangi-Phitti creek system near Port Qasim under an agreement between the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pakistan and the Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Limited (PIBT). PIBT Chief Executive Officer Sharique Siddiqui said this on Thursday during a ceremony held at Port Qasim to highlight the benefits of mangroves for the coastal communities as well as PIBT’s contribution in greening and protecting the coasts in the vicinity of Port Qasim. The ceremony was attended by government officials, foreign dignitaries, representatives of non-governmental organisations, staffs of IUCN Pakistan and PIBT, and media persons. Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Chairman Admiral Muhammad Shafi appreciated PIBT’s role in planting the mangroves. Talking about the projects in the vicinity of Port Qasim, Shafi offered his support for anyone who would like to invest in the Port Qasim area. Sindh Environment and Alternative Energy Secretary Mir Hussain Ali appreciated the PIBT for conducting the environmental impact assessment thoroughly. Ali also appreciated the PIBT for working with the IUCN, which has a global reputation, and said that the mangrove project was very important for the country. He said economic development was impacting the environment because of reclamation of land in the sub-tidal zone, which should be discouraged. Sharing her experience of the private sector and the ecosystem services in Asia, IUCN Regional Director Asia Aban Marker Kabraji said many people had settled in the coastal zones to take advantage of the range of ecosystem services, including the opportunities for food production, transportation, recreation and other human activities provided here. Kabraji said their well-being depended directly or indirectly on the availability of environmental goods and services provided by the natural coastal systems. She said the PIBT and the PQA needed to ensure balance between development and the environment in their future activities as natural life in the area could be affected. She also said thousands of fisher folk depended on the coastal areas, and the country was paying huge environmental costs in terms of gross domestic product losses of Rs365 billion per year. These are huge costs for a poor country, and could be avoided through better environmental governance, she added. She said that more than 50 percent of the mangrove cover had vanished in Pakistan in the past few decades. She suggested exploring possibilities of experience-sharing between Pakistani and Indian mangrove communities. She said the private sector tended to have a relatively short planning horizon, and did not always consider the potential effects, like climate change. Though the public sector has the strongest and most direct incentives to adapt to climate change, the private sector typically does not take the initiative for coastal adaptation to climate change because benefits are limited or uncertain, she added. She congratulated the PIBT for taking a step towards fulfilling its corporate social and environmental responsibility and partnering with the IUCN Pakistan for the conservation of coastal mangroves. Thanking the participants, Marine Group of Companies Chairman Haleem Siddiqui said the PIBT had disturbed mangroves from 25 acres of land and were compensating with planting mangroves over 500 hectares. He said the country could not develop without efficient and sizable ports.