President Zardari addresses the World Summit for Social Development in Doha on November 4, 2025. PHOTO: RADIO PAKISTAN
ISLAMABAD:
President Asif Ali Zardari, reaffirming commitment to the conservation and sustainable management of wetlands, urged citizens (particularly youth, local communities and policy makers) to value, protect and sustainably manage wetlands as vital cultural and ecological assets.
“This day marks the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands, also known as the Ramsar Convention, in 1971. Pakistan is a signatory to this historic agreement, which promotes the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and their resources for present and future generations,” the President said in a message marking World Wetlands Day on February 2.
He said the theme of World Wetlands Day 2026, “Wetlands and Traditional Knowledge: Celebrating Cultural Heritage”, reminded them that wetlands were not simply ecological systems.
“They are living cultural landscapes shaped over centuries by local communities. Across Pakistan, traditional knowledge and practices linked to wetlands have supported livelihoods, food security, biodiversity conservation and a balanced relationship with nature,” the president said in a statement, quoted by the press wing of the President’s Secretariat.
President Zardari said water security in the region depended on responsible and lawful cross-border cooperation. “Pakistan remains concerned about India’s unilateral actions affecting the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, a legally binding agreement that has governed the equitable sharing of water in the Indus Basin for decades,” he added.
He noted that the suspension of treaty mechanisms, including the sharing of hydrological data, undermined trust and predictability when climate pressures required greater cooperation.
“Water must never be used as a tool of coercion, and its use as a weapon of war against Pakistan must be rejected, as the interruption of river flows threatens millions of lives, livelihoods and food systems in a country dependent on the Indus basin,” he emphasized.
The President noted that healthy wetlands reduce flooding, protect coastlines, sustain livelihoods and reduce emissions, adding that neglecting them multiplies climate losses, while restoring them generates high benefits for resilience, economy and ecology.
He noted that Pakistan was among the countries least responsible for climate change but most exposed to its consequences. “Our wetlands are frontline climate defenders against floods, droughts, heat waves and sea level rise,” he added.
Pakistan’s diverse wetlands, the President said, play a critical role in biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, water regulation and disaster risk reduction.
