Cultural key to unlocking climate solutions

IN the early 1990s, women in Pakistan’s northern mountain valleys began noticing something that officials in distant offices often discussed only in reports. The forests around their villages were disappearing. Hillsides were thinning, grazing land was degrading and fuelwood was becoming harder to find. Under the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, local women’s organizations in Gilgit, Baltistan and Chitral started planting nurseries, restoring slopes and managing community grazing systems through locally rooted practices that often proved more durable than state-led interventions. A 1995 NORAGRIC review by K. Hameed Ullah emphasized community involvement in forestry. To those women, the forest was never just timber or economic value. It was tied to memory, survival and a shared responsibility toward the land. That understanding still receives little space in Pakistan’s climate debate. Yet the larger lesson reaches beyond forestry. Communities often protect the environment more effectively when cultural values remain connected to it. Modern climate discussions focus heavily on finance, diplomacy and emissions targets, but policy alone rarely lasts unless it is rooted in the everyday beliefs and practices of the people expected to sustain it. Consider the Kalash Valleys, where the Kalash community has lived for centuries in one of the most environmentally fragile parts of the Hindu Kush. Historically, their farming systems relied on crop diversity, seed preservation and low-input agricultural practices that researchers increasingly recognize as ecologically resilient. Water distribution from glacial streams has long depended on community rules passed through generations rather than written manuals. Their seasonal festivals, including Joshi and Uchal, are not only cultural celebrations but reminders of reciprocity with the land and livestock that sustain valley life. Very little of this appears in official climate planning. Or take the example of the Bishnoi community.