Mangroves plantations at World Wetlands Day

Suhail Yusuf

Students of different school are planting the mangroves saplings near WWF Wetland Center. – Photo by Hussain Afzal / Dawn.com

KARACHI: World Wetland Day was observed on Thursday in Karachi with contests, presentations and plantations at World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) wetland centre, located at Sandspit beach.
WWF Pakistan invited some 200 students from four public sector schools – all located near the Sandspit area. The children presented their views about environment, wetlands and mangroves through various poster, speech, tableau and quiz competitions.
Babar Hussain, the in-charge of the wetland center, talked about the importance of wetlands and mangroves for the environment as well as humanity.
Later, Naveed Ali Soomro, project coordinator at the WWF also gave a presentation about the human serving wetlands and their ecosystem. He also engaged the children with questions while giving his presentation.
Wetlands are an important part of the ecological landscape as they are a source of fishesand water. Beautiful wetlands are a great resort for tourism and thus play an important role in the over all environmental conditions.
The world celebrates World Wetland Day on 2 February, which was the date in 1971 when many nations had signed an agreement at Ramsar, Iran for the conservation of wetlands.
Students from the Government Boys Secondary School, Government Boys Primary School Younis-Abad, Government Girls Primary School Younis Abad and Kaka Pir Community Schools participated in the competitions.
Later, the children moved to an open area after being divided into groups of 10, where they planted 200 saplings of Mangroves (Avicennia Marina).
Once declared useless, now Mangroves are considered as nurseries of shrimps and other marine species. They add oxygen to the marine ecosystems and prevent land erosion. Mangroves also act as shock absorbers against hurricanes and tsunamis.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Hussain said that WWF will plant 5,000 saplings in the clear patches nears mangroves at Sandspit.

Haris of Government Boys Secondary School during his speech about wetlands and WWF wetland center. – Photo by Hussain Afzal / Dawn.com

Later, Dawn.com asked various students about the importance of wetlands and Mangroves. Kalbe Ali a 9th grade student said that wetlands are home to migratory birds and are also an important source of fish.
“We must stop others from cutting Mangrove forests because they are home of fish and shrimps,” said Husna, a grade 5 student.
Later, Subash Dawani, Sindh’s Manager Conservation WWF Pakistan, distributed awards and prizes among the winners of the competitions.
Kakapir School won the first prize in the tableau competition, and also was awarded the first prize for the poster competition. The Government Primary School of Younis Abad and Government Boys Secondary School of Younis Abad won the second and third prizes respectively.
In the speech competition, Musera of Government Girls primary school, Younis Abad, won first prize, Haris of Government Boys Secondary School won second and Husna of Kakapir School secured third position.