This website is produced under a regional project titled "Securing Farmer's Rights to Livelihood in Hindu Kush Himalayan Region". (read more)

The objective of launching this website is to provide a forum to discuss ways and means to safeguard the rights of indigenous communities and palnt wealth found in the Northern Areas of Pakistan under the new emerging regime of patenting and bio-piracy. Most of the information put on this web page is about plants and herbs found in Gilgit and Skardu districts of Northern Pakistan.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this Web Page is accurate to the best of our Knowledge, however SDPI or AMHRWO accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information on this site.

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Securing Farmers Rights to Livelihood in Hindu Kush Himalayan Region

Launched in July 2001, the three-year programme, Securing Farmers' Rights to Livelihood in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya (HKH) Region, is being implemented by SAWTEE in collaboration with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu. The major objective of FRP is to protect and promote farmers' rights in the HKH region in the context of liberalisation, globalisation and the World Trade Organization ( WTO ) Agreements. This programme is being conducted in five South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Ford Foundation, New Delhi and ActionAid, Bangkok are proud supporters of FRP .

The Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, which is afflicted with poverty, resource degradation, lack of research and investment, and low productivity, is facing three mountain-specific problems, namely inaccessibility, vulnerability, and marginality. The potential sources of risk associated with globalisation are making them more vulnerable. These risk factors include: (a) incompatibility between the driving forces of globalisation and imperatives of specific mountain conditions ; (b) side effects of past extractive approaches ; (c) erosion of niche/comparative advantage ; (d) weakening of resilience/coping capacities ; and (e) exclusion from global political economy.

It is realized that there is a need to protect farmers' rights and to make strategic interventions. In turn, this will contribute to securing farmers' rights to livelihood in the HKH region in the context of liberalisation, globalisation and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreements, SAWTEE together with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and its regional partners is implementing this p program since the year 2001 in five South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The five partner organisations include Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association ( BELA) in Bangladesh; Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) in India; Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Pakistan; Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public) in Nepal; and Law & Society Trust (LST) in Sri Lanka.


OBJECTIVES

The major objectives of the programme are as follows:

  • Establishing a preliminary database on the products, biodiversity, indigenous medicines, indigenous arts, crafts and knowledge and contributing in the process to protect them against illegal patents.
  • Ensuring farmers' rights to a range of mountain products and resources that are coming under severe threat s due to implementation of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the WTO.
  • Assessing the likely impact of liberalisation, structural adjustment, globalisation, and further recommending strategies to optimise gains to the policy makers of the region and mitigate the adverse impact on mountain people and mountain resources.
  • Strengthening the capacity of existing institutions and explore the merit of crafting new institutional mechanisms in mountain areas to safeguard farmers' right s.
  • Establishing issue based, pragmatic linkages with a diversity of civil society and member institutions to establish and strengthen contacts with grassroots level farmers and their associations.
This web page is an effort to establish a preliminary database of medicinal plants found in the Northern Areas of Pakistan mainly in Gilgit districts. SDPI along with its local partner Alpine Medicinal Herbs and Rural Welfare Organization (AMHRWO) have been able to collect information of about 60 medicinal plants found and used in the area.

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