KARACHI: Friends of Indus Forum (FIF) in collaboration with WWF-Pakistan’s Building Capacity on Climate Change Adaptation in Coastal Areas of Pakistan (CCAP) organised ‘Climate Awards-2015’ ceremony. The awards were distributed among journalists from print as well as electronic media who have contributed for raising awareness about climate change issues among general public. Speaking on the occasion, lawmaker Mehtab Akbar Rashdi of Sindh said that climate change is a bitter reality and it has not only affected the present but is going to impact future generations. She emphasised that instead of donor driven projects, community and government owned initiatives should be started to ensure their sustainability. She was of the view that rich flora and fauna of Sindh is vanishing at a fast pace and concerted efforts should be taken to revive it. Mehtab said, “Environment has not been priority in our country.” She urged that national environmental quality standards should be implemented by industries in true spirit. Former Sindh Culture and Tourism Department secretary Shams Jafrani said Sindh has a great potential of eco-tourism, which needs to be promoted. “Due to mismanagement and bad governance, Sindh has lost rich forests and wetlands,” he said. Conversion of forest land into agriculture use is rampant in Sindh and if this trend is not controlled, province will lose remaining forest cover, he warned. He said that journalists can play major role in sensitising the policy makers and communities. FIF general secretary Nasir Ali Panhwar said that environment and climate change needs to be made mainstream issue through media. He said that many media houses are without dedicated beat dealing with climate change and environment. He said that some individual journalists are highlighting environmental issues due to their passion and personal interest. He said that they should be encouraged to highlight environmental issues through building capacity. Veteran journalist Nasir Ajiz shared that environment is a multidimensional phenomenon so it needs to focus on every aspect of it that includes water, forest, flora and fauna, wildlife and other areas. Noor Ahmed Janjhi, a writer and researcher, said that market place plays pivotal role in degradation of the environment as it focuses only on profits and disturbs the balance of ecosystem. Dr Ali Murtaza Dharejo, Afia Salam, Altaf Hussain Sheikh and others spoke on the occasion. Journalists who were awarded included A B Arisar, Bharo Mal Amrani, Faiza Ilyas, Saher Baloch, Shahid Hussain, Uneeba Waqar, Satram Sangi, Shabnam Gul, Qadir Lashari, Kazi Asif, Jamshed Bukhari, Shakeel Soomro, Waheed Rajpar, Qasim Rajpar, Asrar Shaikh, Manzoor Shaikh, Nasir Ajaz, Ali Akbar Hingorjo, Makan Shah Rizvi, Irfan Aligi, Shabir Lashari, Sameer Mandhro, Zulfiqar Kunbhar, Anwar Khan Razi and Aajiz Jamali.