To reach the Toba Kakar Range, a wild and rugged land sparsely populated by semi-nomadic tribes, one has to undergo a gruelling nine hours drive from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. In these mountains, life has remained unchanged over the years. The agro-pastoral people still observe centuries old tribal customs, living in tents made of black goat hair as they move around the region on a seasonal basis to look after their sheep and goats. Located in the northernmost part of the Toba Kakar Range in Qila Saifullah District is the Torghar valley. There are only four settlements in Torghar, the largest being Tanishpa, where limited cultivable land and perennial water from springs is available. Here, people have small agricultural fields and orchards for a subsistence economy. The local tribal people are renowned as much for their hospitality as they are for their fierce pride.

Torghar valley was the last bastion of resistance to the British colonisers who attempted to march towards Afghanistan in the 19th century. The British could venture no further than this valley. The landscape here is rocky and barren and plants come to life when there is rainfall. The sparse vegetation consists largely of scrub grass and wild pistachio and juniper trees. Near the streams, however, there is an abundance of plants and small animals living among the large boulders. The area is rich in herbs and shrubs that are used as traditional medicine. Wild tulips can often be spotted as can other rare flowers and over 80 recorded species of birds including Chakur and See-see partridge.

These mountainous tribal areas of Balochistan, near the border with Afghanistan, are home to ethnic Pushtun tribes who have lived on this land for centuries. The Government of Pakistan has marginal jurisdiction in this area where people live by an ancient code of honour and tribal fealty. These remote mountains are also home to an indigenous and endangered species of wild goat called the Suleiman Markhor (Capra falconeri jerdoni) and wild sheep called Afghan Urial (Ovis orientalis cycloceros). These large ungulates, as well as leopards and Black Bears, once used to enjoy the free range of the mountains of northern Balochistan. Due to uncontrolled hunting, accelerated by the availability of automatic weapons from the prolonged war in neighbouring Afghanistan, large populations of these animals were either wiped out or were on the verge of extinction by the mid-1980s.

Sardar Naseer A. Tareen, a US trained professional film-maker discovered this when he was commissioned by the Government of Balochistan to make a film on the allegedly rich wildlife of the province in 1984. During the filming, Sardar Naseer came across a pocket of some of the last remaining populations of Suleiman Markhor and Afghan Urial in Torghar. When Sardar Naseer realised that nothing was being done by either the government or the local tribesmen to save these wild ungulates from extinction, he took the difficult task upon himself, turning into a self-confessed ‘accidental environmentalist.’

‘I was not a conservationist… my interest lay in film-making. I was pushed into the pool in a manner of speaking,’ he recalls in the slightly American accented English. Sardar Naseer comes from Balochistan, from a town called Pishin near Quetta. In his early 60s, he is a tireless traveler and a cultured man. He has all the sophistication of a globe-trotter who is equally at home in both the east and the west. He remains a bachelor to this day, saying “This is why I have all the time in the world for my work.” Sardar Naseer received his initial schooling in Pishin, later moving to Quetta and Lahore for his higher education. He attended Lahore’s prestigious Government College from 1953 to 1958 before leaving for the USA. “I was going to study International Relations… but instead I switched to communication and got admitted to The California Institute of Arts,” he says with a wide smile. In the 1960s The Cal Arts was a highly selective institution, only those who showed promise of outstanding talent were granted admission. While Sardar Naseer thoroughly enjoyed his studies in Cinema-Graphic, back in Balochistan his conservative family got upset over their son’s unconventional decision to pursue the arts. He nevertheless completed his training and decided to stay on in the USA. At the time, his father was the Sardar (or chieftain) of the Tareen tribe, as is his nephew today (although the actual power passes traditionally from father to eldest son in Balochistan, all the sons can use the title of ‘Sardar’). Sardar Naseer’s ancestral home is an old fort located about 30 kilometres north of Pishin, and is still inhabited by members of his extended family.

“I never really had intentions of settling in the USA. I was always running back and forth and one day I said let’s go home… Pakistan is still home for me,” he says. After twenty-four years of living in the USA, Sardar Naseer came back to Pakistan, determined to reconnect to his tribal roots and make a solid career for himself. In his many years of travelling extensively, he had pursued a checkered career in film-making.

In 1983, upon his return to Pakistan, he thought of making a feature-length documentary film on Balochistan’s cultural heritage for the overseas market. He had to apply to the federal government for permission for this project, because the country was under Martial Law and Balochistan was a sensitive region owing to the rise of a separatist movement in the province. When the authorities in Islamabad did not respond, Sardar Naseer approached the government of Balochistan. They asked him to first make a short film on the wildlife of Balochistan. Eventually, Sardar Naseer agreed to make the film, and was given an abundance of encouraging information on Balochistan’s wildlife. “You name it and they had it on the files,” he recalls. He soon discovered that the animals only existed in the files of the provincial government’s wildlife department.

Traditionally, hunting had been practiced in Balochistan’s tribal areas, but it was only during the 1970s that the wildlife of the province began to be wiped out. The Afghan war and its steady flow of armaments had induced the residents, outsiders and seasonal migrants to increase their hunting of the wildlife, indiscriminately killing animals of all ages and gender. Sardar Naseer concentrated his filming efforts around the area known as Torghar in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas of north-eastern Balochistan.

Called the ‘Black Mountain’, Torghar consists of a series of dark coloured upturned ridges of sedimentary materials that are approximately 90 kilometres long, ranging from about 15 to 30 kilometres in width. The altitude of these mountains varies between 2,500 to 3,300 metres. Visitors armed with binoculars have to climb up the mountain to the very top of the precipitous ridges to view herds of Markhors feeding on grasses and shrubs. Since they camouflage well with their rocky surroundings, it is difficult to see them with the naked eye. The Afghan Urial, which is reddish in colour, is sometimes easier to spot when it is silhouetted against the blue sky on the plateaus above the cliffs, while the Markhor prefer cliffs and ravines.

In 1984, Sardar Naseer found enough wildlife remaining in Torghar to complete his filming, although he was perturbed by the fact that only a handful of female urial and markhors were visible, while the few males were either injured or very young. Sardar Naseer realised that the wildlife in this remote area would soon disappear if no measures were taken right away. Aside from hunting and poaching, massive deforestation and land erosion were making survival difficult for the wildlife. In fact, the entire ecosystem was threatened with collapse. Very few Markhors are found outside Pakistan, the Suleiman Markhor is the straight-horned species that exists only in Balochistan and the NWFP. Since the total world population of this unique animal is found largely within Pakistan, the country has a special responsibility to ensure its future survival.

In the town of Qila Saifullah, Sardar Naseer discussed the issue of the dwindling wildlife in the Toba Jogezai Range with the late Nawab Taimur Shah Jogezai, who was the chief of the Kakar tribe. Sardar Naseer Tareen is related to the Jogezais through several marriages between the two families, including his sister’s marriage to the late Nawab Taimur Shah’s brother. Nawab Taimur Shah told Sardar Naseer about his fruitless efforts to petition the provincial government to provide game watchers to protect the wildlife in his area. They both agreed that something must be done before it was too late.

Sardar Naseer returned to the USA and contacted Mr David Ferguson, of the Office of International Conservation of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) for advice. In 1985, Mr Ferguson sent Dr Richard Mitchell of the USF&WS, along with Dr Bart O’ Gara (then of the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit and a Professor at the University of Montana) and Dr Bruce Bunting of the World Wildlife Fund-US, to Quetta to discuss opportunities for initiating wildlife conservation activities in Balochistan with Sardar Naseer and provincial officials.

Since the provincial government has no control over this area, it was soon realised in the discussions that there was little they could do for conservation in the tribal areas of Balochistan. Dr Bart O’ Gara then turned to Sardar Naseer and told him: “You can start a conservation programme in Torghar. Talk to the people who live there, tell them about conserving the animals and get them involved.” Sardar Naseer’s initial response was “Forget it.” But he did discuss the idea with the late Nawab Taimur Shah Jogezai who encouraged him to go ahead with it, telling him that his son, Nawabzada Mahboob Jogezai, would help him out in Torghar. Once an avid and skilled hunter, Nawabzada Mahboob put the programme on sound footing when he became the first person in the area to lay down his gun as an example to others. Sardar Naseer says that since then, Nawabazada Mahboob has become a ‘fanatic conservationist.’ He adds, “Without Mahboob’s involvement and commitment, nothing could have been achieved.”

With the guidance of the American experts, a ‘game guard’ programme at Torghar was initiated under the Torghar Conservation Project (TCP). According to the project plans, Torghar was to be initially closed to all hunting by locals and outsiders, and game guards selected from the local population would be hired to enforce the ban by protecting access to the area and reporting all trespassers. Surveys were to be conducted and when animal populations had recovered sufficiently, a limited number of permits officially issued by the government would become available for trophy-hunting. These permits were to be sold primarily to foreign hunters.

Controlled hunting of trophy animals was a critical component of the plan for two basic reasons. First, it was to generate the revenue necessary to support the game guard programme. Second, it was to impress upon the game guards and other local tribes people that their economic well being was directly tied to the abundance of Markhor and Urial, so that it would motivate them to give full protection to those species. If the wildlife populations did not recover to the point where they could be hunted, as a result of continued poaching or habitat degradation, for example, then there would be no funding for game guards and no ancillary benefits to other local tribes people.

After informal discussions with the community living in Torghar, facilitated by Nawabazada Mahboob Jogezai who knew the tribesmen well since he had hunted extensively in the area, the project was launched in 1985 with seven game guards. These game guards were former hunters who agreed to put down their weapons. Their initial duties were to prevent locals from Qila Saifullah, Muslim Bagh, Quetta and adjacent towns from hunting in Torghar. The project continued to advance slowly as the years passed. Systematic trophy hunting by foreign hunters (mainly from Europe) took place every year from 1986 onwards and the proceeds were used to hire more game guards and provide developmental assistance to the local community. At an initial figure of US$ 10,000 per markhor head and US $5,000 per urial head, the tribesmen began profiting from their conservation efforts. (Of this amount, around 25 per cent is taken by the provincial government as a fee.) Older animals were carefully selected for culling so that the herds’ breeding rates were not affected. Additional game guards were hired every year. At present, there are 56 game guards protecting approximately 1,800 square kilometres of Torghar.

Explains Sardar Naseer, “I personally don’t like hunting at all… but we have to support trophy-hunting for the sake of conservation. It is a source of income for us, it is our necessity.” Today, the Suleiman Markhor’s trophy fetches up to $25,000 and is one of the rarest in the world. The conservation approaches adopted by Torghar are now being replicated by other organisations in trophy-hunting programmes in the northern areas of Pakistan. However, Sardar Naseer warns, “I don’t want our example to be misused by others in this field. I am afraid that in some other programmes it is the dollars and not conservation that is the main goal… and that is dangerous and must be stopped.”

The project has directly resulted in a complete cessation of uncontrolled markhor and urial hunting in Torghar. Since its inception, however, the project has encountered an almost constant stream of problems and obstacles, mostly relating to questions about its legitimacy as a conservation programme and to the issuance of hunting and export permits by the provincial government. These problems stem from the fact that there was no precedent of a community-managed conservation and trophy-hunting programme in the provincial wildlife laws.

In the 1980s, when the project initiated the trophy hunts, the federal government had placed a ban on the hunting of all large mammals in the country. The government of Balochistan challenged this ban and authorised the Torghar Conservation Project to allow the hunt against the advice of the federal government. This meant that for almost a decade, the project could arrange for trophy hunts within the province, but foreign hunters who would want to export the trophies out of the country would be committing an illegal act which would be without the permission of the federal government. The country removed the hunting ban in 1998 and currently the TCP hunts have full legal protection.

Some critics point out that the trophy-hunting of markhor by foreign hunters is actually illegal, since the markhor is listed in Appendix I of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which forbids the export of the trophies out of the country. With its secretariat in Switzerland, CITES has recently permitted the Government of Pakistan to allow six community-managed hunts for sustainable use in the country annually. Issued in 1998, this exemption was approved partly because of the example of the Torghar Conservation Project. Of the six trophy-hunting licenses, the project has been permitted to use two of these to facilitate trophy hunts in every season. Two hunts under this new exemption have been carried out in Torghar in 1999.

Torghar Conservation Project is also assisting efforts to petition the US government to downlist the straight-horned markhor on their Endangered Species Act of 1973. If this relaxation of US restrictions comes through, it would allow the US hunters to take home the Suleiman Markhor trophy.

Initially, the locals had expressed suspicions that the project was simply a way for the government to take control of Torghar. Some of the tribesmen, always reluctant to accept government interference in their affairs, had opposed the project. But later when they saw their community benefiting from the project their suspicions abated. Their commitment is now so strong that even a serving Chief of Army Staff was not allowed to hunt in the area for free. The tribal make-up of Torghar has been the principal factor contributing to the successful cessation of hunting. The ownership of the land in Torghar is divided between sub-branches of the Jalalzais, who are themselves a branch of the larger Kakar tribe. The Jogezai Nawab is the head of all the Kakars. Most residents of this area know each other well and are related by birth or marriage. Thus, potential poachers face severe social pressures if they violate the ‘no hunting’ law and kill animals. Poachers are quickly found out, and usually face dire consequences. The nomads passing through the project area (from Afghanistan) have also accepted the ‘no hunting’ law and refrain from hunting.

There were an estimated 200 urial and less than 100 markhor into existence in 1985. A survey carried out by Dr Kurt Johnson on behalf of the US-FWS in 1994 estimated a population of about 400 markhor. This showed a substantial increase in the population in less than ten years. The most recent survey sponsored by the USF&WS and carried out by Michael Frisina in 1999 estimated the markhor population to be about 1,684 and that of the urial to be about 1,742. Torghar is now home to the largest population of these unique animals in the world.

Torghar is also a bird refuge and Sardar Naseer has discovered that the Hawfinch is not a seasonal visitor to the region, but that it actually breeds in Torghar. There has also been the rediscovery of the Afghan Mole Vole, a small rodent that is indigenous to this region which was thought to have disappeared. In addition, scientists have discovered two new species of lizards, one of rock agama and the other of a bent-toed gecko, and one of them has been named after Sardar Naseer! Still handy with his camera, Sardar Naseer has filmed over 19 hours of footage of Torghar. He hopes to edit it some day and produce a series of films on its natural environment.

Sardar Naseer’s efforts to save the markhor have won him considerable international acclaim. The Dutch have awarded him a knighthood in the Order of the Golden Ark and the French have appointed him their Honorary Consul in Quetta. The French also recently awarded him their L’Order National du Mérite. Sardar Tareen is today an important figure in the conservation field in Pakistan. He recently retired as a Board Member of WWF-Pakistan and is currently the Chair of the IUCN’s Sustainable Use Specialist Group. Sardar Naseer’s vision has now expanded beyond Torghar. He is currently initiating the conservation of the Balochistan Black Bear in Pab Range, conservation of reptiles in Chagai, conservation of marine turtles in Tuk and the conservation of wild cats and ungulates in Mand. All these programmes will be community-based and rely greatly on the lessons learnt in Torghar.

In April 1994, the Torghar Conservation Project was converted into an NGO, the Society for Torghar Environmental Protection (STEP), with Sardar Naseer Tareen as its Chairman and a staff of eight based in Quetta. Since Torghar is an agro-pastoral society, based primarily on subsistence agriculture and livestock, there is a tremendous need for both additional sources of income and permanent jobs for valley residents. In 1995, STEP approached the UNDP’s GEF Small Grants Programme for financial and technical advice. Together the NGO and the team of the GEF/SGP chalked out a way to address the areas conservation needs as well as the concerns of the local community for their livelihoods. The grant funding from the programme has allowed direct focus on environmental issues as well as enabling better incomes for the local tribesmen. Initially, the tribesman in this self sufficient area were wary of any outsiders, but to sustain the work they were planning, someone had to invest in the area. The transformation in their attitude came when a young staff member of UNDP visited remote Torghar. When Sardar Naseer introduced the young outsider to the local community, his unassuming air disarmed the tribesmen completely. They agreed to accept the partnership with GEF/SGP as an unusual gesture of trust with a hitherto unknown entity. The clearing of springs, lining of irrigation channels and construction of water tanks and a newly built mini-dam has resulted in increased water supply in the fields leading to improved agricultural production. The construction of new link roads and maintenance of the old link road has resulted in increased access and people can now travel to the nearby towns in less time with less expenditure. New orchards have also enhanced their income and the increased agricultural production may reduce their sole reliance on domestic livestock. Healthcare facilities are also provided to the local population through the income of the project.

Largely self-sufficient since its inception, the project is the largest employer in the area. The tribal people have realised that the project is not merely benefiting a few people by providing them employment as game guards but is bringing prosperity to the whole populace. In fact, the scale of this initiative is being increased and a proposal for GEF’s medium sized grant is under submission. Once the medium sized grant is secured, Sardar Naseer is planning to establish schools and health clinics in Torghar. “I want to turn the Society into an institution. It must touch each and everyone on the mountain. Everyone must realise that if they conserve these animals, then they will continue to have the benefits of health and education. This will ensure the programme’s survival in the long run,” he explains.

Various eminent scientists, journalists and individuals have now visited Torghar. This has created a sense of pride in the local population because they know that these people visit Torghar to see their pioneering achievement in the field of conservation. For Sardar Naseer, the most valuable recognition has come from the local people who accord him with their highest respect. He says of his efforts: “Projects like this only work when one gets on first-name terms with these mountain people. Over the years, I have had to deal with them on so many delicate issues that I know them thoroughly. We have had to be very careful and extremely sensitive to their traditions; it has often been the case of one step forward and two steps back. In the end, this is their land and they can just turn around and ask us to leave if they are not happy with us.”

Today, impressed by his achievements, several other local tribes are seeking Sardar Naseer’s advice to start similar conservation projects in their respective areas. In a remote area of the country where the government has little jurisdiction, tribal leadership has proven that it has the potential to pave the way for conservation and development.

– Written by Rina Saeed Khan