Several million dollars were spent by the Social, Environment and Economic Development (SEED) project under the framework of the Pakistan-Italy Debt Swap Agreement (PIDSA) in five years to establish the Central Karakorum National Park (CKNP). The CKNP was conceived in 1993 but it was on the back burner until SEED was launched in 2009 and concluded two year back with the establishment of CKNP directorate with the Gilgit-Baltistan government. It is quite ironic that the authorities are unable to sustainably continue the development and management of the CKNP despite having all the comprehensive management plans done by the Italian and Pakistani experts jointly. The main issue is the lack of financial resources and political will besides the lack of the expertise required to manage the world’s one of the largest high altitude National Park. The CKNP is blessed with the world’s largest mountain glacial systems; with Siachen (75 km), Baltoro (57 km) and Hispar-Biafo (122 km) glaciers originating within its boundaries. Administratively, it is situated in the Skardu and Gilgit districts of the Gilgit and Baltistan Region of Pakistan. The park has another significance; the 72,500 square kilometre national park is on the border with China, Afghanistan, and India, and represents one section of the of Hindu Kush-Karakorum-Himalaya mountain range. The area is part of the ‘transitional zone’ between the arid Central Asia and the semi-humid subtropics of the northern South Asia. The park is a biodiversity hotspot and a home to a rich array of fauna and flora owing to varied micro-climates, and ecological conditions, and is a source of water and other ecosystem services of ecological, aesthetic, and socioeconomic significance, not only for those living within the area, but also for people living beyond. The area is host to most of the endemic floral species found in Pakistan and a refuge for many threatened species such as snow leopards, Markhors, Marco Polo sheep, musk deer, Himalayan lynx, blue sheep, brown bears, Indian wolves and Himalayan ibex. The park is a biodiversity hotspot and a home to a rich array of fauna and flora owing to varied micro-climates and ecological conditions The largest protected area of Pakistan, covering over 10,557.73 square kilometres in the Central Karakorum mountain range, while the world’s second highest peak K2 is also the part of the park besides hundreds of trekking lanes. The enormous potential of sustainable tourism remains unrealised and untapped. Despite all the clarity in order to facilitate the maintenance of the Central Karakorum National Park ecological integrity while, at the same time, providing sustainable management opportunities for local communities and visitors, the implementation mechanisms are suffering from negligence and lack of adequate management. Today, the CKNP is facing enormous conservation and sustainable development challenge that are both global and local in nature. Especially global climate change and the consequent impacts on the glacier dominated mountain ecosystem. Human activities such as livestock rearing and deforestation threaten the survival of many mountain species especially in the Hopar, Hispar, and Shimshal Valleys. The park’s remoteness and unique terrain conditions with vastly varying physical, biological and societal systems pose special management challenges. Inadequate policies and strategies; weak institutional, administrative, planning, and management capacities; inadequate data and information management; and poverty present enormous challenges to CKNP’s conservation and sustainable development. Strategic intervention combining both modern conservation paradigm and traditional knowledge can guide sustainable development. Genetic resources offer opportunities for livelihoods but only if used wisely. Tourism can benefit people and environment if sufficient revenue is retained locally. Sustainable development of the national park has been the major challenge since the declaration of the central Karakorum region as a national park in 1993. Several activities aimed at conserving the environment, preserving the cultural heritage and promoting rural development are being carried out by several government and nongovernment actors. However, the effectiveness of these interventions yielded less than desired due to a lack of coordination and the capacity of the local human resource along with the absence of an integrated management plan. What is the hitch now when the SEED project has delivered a comprehensive management strategy coupled with the vigorous Action Plan? The GB and federal governments need to think about the fate of the local communities and the people downstream whose life and livelihood is attached with the adequate management of the CKNP — the hub of nature and natural resource that could easily be termed as the backbone of the country’s economy through tourism and ecosystem services. How long we shall be ignorant towards the national and natural treasures that we are blessed with? We need to come out of the slumber in order to promote sustainable development and management of the CKNP. Only better coordination of the on-going efforts and initiatives, and little more financial inputs would help to harness the economic miracles through integrated development. We need to learn that how to stand on our own feet and continue with development initiatives once the donor completes the project and pull out its engagement. For sure, the donors could not be funding all our rides all the life. The same is the case with the CKNP. Let’s make it sustainable hub of mountaineering, ecotourism and trekking paradise for all the economic benefits without jeopardising the nature and natural resources. The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed Published in Daily Times, November 15th 2017.