By Aftab Rana
In today’s world of digital technologies and over consumption, it has become more essential that we should make an effort to keep people in touch with Mother Earth. It is important to understand the rhythm of nature, its beauty, its mystery and the changing of seasons to get close to our God and to understand the true meaning of life. Especially our young generation is now getting too far away from all this and they are lost in the world of digital media and modern gadgets and they hardly find any opportunity to get close to nature and learn what real life is all about.
It has been the mission of my mentor and the founder of outdoor education movement in Pakistan, Brig Jan Nadir Khan to work with young children and take them close to nature because it is powerful approach to give them what actually is essential for them.
I had opportunity to launch a unique program for our young generation under the title of National Children Mountain Conservation Meet (NCMC) in 2002 under the guidance of Brig Jan Nadir, founder President of Adventure Foundation Pakistan to engage them in learning about nature conservation through ecotourism. We launched this outdoor education program in 2002 on the occasion of International Year of Mountains with a view to create awareness among young people about the natural environment of our mountains by involving them in meaningful activities using mountains’ environment as an open classroom.
This program involves young children in an action-oriented form of learning about the natural environment and its related problems. Participants of this meet face the challenges of outdoor and gain firsthand exposure of wilderness environment. It makes them conscious enough to do something practical for the conservation and preservation of natural environment by undertaking local level projects in their communities and schools when they go back home. The children who attend this Meet are given the title of “Eco-Guards” which gives them confidence to play an active role in their day to day life to create awareness about protection of natural environment and its important role in our daily life. Every year this program provides opportunity to about 100 youngsters from all over Pakistan to be part of it where we grow the seeds of love for nature among our young generation. So far around 2000 children have benefited from this program over the last 20 years and have gained the title of Eco Guards.

This year, NCMC 2022 was held in the beautiful valley of Manoor. 75 Children and 25 staff members from all over Pakistan divided in three working groups participated in learning various activities including trekking, camping, navigation and use of campus, community service, wilderness exploration and nature study and much more. They also worked on developing their Eco Projects on which they will work in their schools and home.

This 10-day camp in mountain wilderness was a life changing experience for them. During this time, their mobile phones were off so they are able to listen to the chirping of birds, whispers of trees, music of rain and sounds of fresh breeze passing through the valley. They were able to enjoy the sharing of their cross cultural experiences with each other and developing new friendships which will go long way with their life as they will now be members of a larger family of Eco-Guards all across Pakistan.

It was just like a classroom without walls and roof where young kids worked in groups to gain the valuable firsthand knowledge of natural environment around them, experienced various adventure activities and skills. They also developed a positive attitude towards nature environment which is the source of all its living beings around us.

Tree plantation, clean up drive, nature art, study of flora and fauna, learning camping, trekking, use of rope, route finding, star gazing, leadership and team building skills and much more was part of this unique program.

The final outcome of this event was a Children Mountain Forum in which young participants made presentations on the theme of “Climate Change – What we can do about it”. Mr. Joudat Ayaz. Additional Secretary, Ministry of Climate Change was Chief Guest on this occasion. Many senior members of AFP participated in this event. Based on the first hand exposure, the young speakers in their presentations highlighted issues faced by the natural environment in mountains areas and shared their personal observations with the audience. They also made recommendations to the concerned departments of government to address the environmental issues. They also displayed their nature art projects. At the end of the forum, a joint resolution by a young representative of NCMC Meet 2022 was presented to the Chief Guest to take necessary steps for the improvement of environmental conditions in the mountain areas of Pakistan.

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Aftab Rana is a Tourism Development Specialist. He is the President of Sustainable Tourism Foundation Pakistan (STFP) and Vice President of Adventure Foundation Pakistan. He is also presently serving as Honorary Managing Director of PTDC. He is also a Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development. He can be contacted at stfpak@gmail.com