ISLAMABAD, NOV 24 (DNA) – United National Development Programme (UNDP Pakistan) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF Pakistan) have agreed to support some of the events of 7th Pakistan Mountain Festival to engage youth and the young art teachers.

 Both the organizations would be supporting the youth rock climbing, Margallah Hills Train 5 clean up, screening of mountain films and especially the UNDP would support the live painting competition for the art teachers of the twin cities who would paint the landscape of Margallah Hills on the spot.

Talking to this scribe, Pakistan Mountain Festival Director Munir Ahmed said the support from UNDP and WWF means a lot to strengthen the Pakistan Mountain Festival that is aimed at raising awareness about the climate challenges confronting the mountains and to mainstream its cultural diversity, and to promote and mainstream the mountain products, cultural and eco-tourism.

The festival also provides the mountain communities the market linkages for the promotion of their goods and services, and gives a push to the review process of the national and regional policies and programs concerning the mountain issues, he said.

Munir Ahmed said “More awareness on mountain conservation and development and implementation of action plans are not possible without active and dynamic engagement of development partners, local and federal governments along with communities”.

He said the vulnerability of Pakistan Mountains is increasing with every passing day and the elected representatives from mountain constituencies are sleeping over the fate of fast depleting local resources and miseries of the mountain communities. The sustainable conservation and development of mountains cannot be achieved without active participation of the communities in the development projects being run by the government and the development partners.

A live painting competition for the art teachers would be arranged in the Margallah Hills National Park  on Tuesday November 28 while about 250 paintings by the students will be put on display in an exhibition ‘Mountain Marvels’ at the Art Gallery of the Rawalpindi Arts Council on the same day.

The Mountain Cultural Showcase will take place on December 8 and 9 at the Ibex Club, Lake View Park. Over 300 youth delegates from different parts of the Pakistan Mountains will be participating in the Pakistan Mountain Youth Parliament on Saturday December 9.=DNA

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