Role of civil society organizations for promoting green and blue infrastructure to adapting climate change: Evidence from Islamabad city, Pakistan

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Abstract

This study contributes to understand the role of the civil society organizations (CSOs) for promoting the green and blue infrastructure (GBI) by studying the case of Islamabad city. Pakistan is facing severe crises of changing climate and it is ranked one of the most vulnerable countries due to climate change. Adaptation to climate change is the main strategy of Pakistan to deal with climatic impacts. Implementing the GBI plays a key role in urban areas for promoting adaptive governance towards climate change. Many efforts have been initiated to manage the issue of climate change by the national, provincial, and local governments in Pakistan. The latest and notable strategy by Pakistani government was devised in the form of the Clean Green Pakistan Strategy (CGPS) to promote the GBI as adaptation strategy to address climate change. However, there are multiple challenges and hurdles for effective implementation of the CGPS. On the heels of Paris Agreement 2015, the CSOs have growing role to overcome such challenges and to prepare the local communities in collaboration with local institutions especially in cities for advancing the GBI and tackling climate change effectively. This study is conducted to understand and uncover the role of the CSOs for promoting the GBI as adaptive strategy in dealing with climate change in Islamabad city of Pakistan. The study focuses to investigate and dig out the prominent initiatives of the CSOs towards the GBI in Pakistani governance system. It also identifies the hurdles and challenges for the CSOs in relation to promote the GBI in Pakistan. A case study approach as research methodology is employed where semi-structured interviews were conducted with relevant actors in Islamabad city. The study finds that the CSOs are actively involved in promotion of the GBI in collaboration with Islamabad administration through plantation drive, educating school students on the GBI, arranging training programs for the local community, providing advocacy assistance and helping the city government for establishing policies and action plans for the GBI. The CSOs act as representative of the local community in devising the GBI policies and implementation actions at local scale through consistent engagements with the local administration and the local community in the city. The CSOs have emerged as a mediator in aligning intergovernmental relations for implementing the GBI as the CSOs are closely working with local, provincial, and federal institutions, thus they are key for all tiers of the government. The major challenges faced by the CSOs are identified: weak linkage and cooperation among local and international organizations, limited financial resources, and weak capacity of local organizations. The role of the CSOs appears in an infancy stages but it is emerging with a reasonable pace for effective adaptive governance in relation with the GBI in Pakistan.

Introduction

It is reported that over 400 cities have declared the state of “climate emergency” to face the challenge of climate change effectively (Dileo, 2020). Cities are taking multiple measures to deal with climate change consequences typically in relation to the green and blue infrastructure (GBI) (Matthews et al., 2015). Some practically global initiatives such as the 100 Resilient Cities or C40 Cities are in place with the aim to adapt resilience strategies and launch responses based on successful experiences from each other (Croese et al., 2020). It is imperative to bring adaptation and mitigation measures to allow the reduction of overall risks in cities due to climate change (IPCC, 2017). Increasing the GBI in urban areas is critical for sustainable development and climate change adaptation (Lõhmus and Balbus, 2015). The role of the GBI is to improve social, economic, and environmental factors through multifunctional use of the natural capital (Alves et al., 2019). The greenery in cities is mainly promoting through parks, forests, open spaces, and gardens assuming that these initiatives will have positive impacts on human lives.

The GBI is an effective strategy as reported that citizens are not only accepting such measures but are willing to pay to city administration for promoting greener growth (GG) in cities (Gill et al., 2007). The GG is an important component for sustainable development as it protects environment and allow economic growth (Belčáková et al., 2019). The implementation of the GBI in cities has gained significant attentions due to increasing evidence of its potential environmental, social, and health benefits (Sharma et al., 2016).

In the recent years, the GBI is identified as ‘best practices’ in local governance for achieving greater urban sustainability and resilience (Roostaie et al., 2019). The GBI is recognized for its adapting abilities to the emerging and irreversible impacts of climate change (Foster et al., 2011). Some local governments in different countries have taken the GBI as a climate change adaptation measure (Rauken et al., 2015).

Pakistan is the most urbanized country in South Asia, about 47 percent of its urban population lives in nine cities, having population exceeding one million each. It is expected that Pakistan will become pre-dominantly urbanized by the year 2025 (Javed et al., 2020). Therefore, cities and urban centers in Pakistan need to adapt to the expected climate changes in order to protect their inhabitants, assets, and elements of critical infrastructures.

Pakistan like any other country recognizes the significance of adaptation and important role of the GBI in cities to address climate change. The GBI and the GG are key strategies in Pakistan to ensure healthy environment and minimize climate related risks. In 2018, government of Pakistan launched one of the notable initiatives toward the GBI in the form of the Clean and Green Pakistan Strategy (CGPS) covering five areas through behavioral change and strengthening institutions. These five areas include plantation, solid waste management, liquid waste/hygiene, total sanitation and safe water. Four out of five areas of the CGPS such as solid waste management, hygiene/liquid waste, sanitation, and safe water are directly related to cities and come under the scope of cities administration. Therefore, Pakistani cities have crucial role in successful implementation of the CGPS.

Efforts towards the GBI have been initiated by federal, provincial and local governments. The CGPS is a positive step towards the GBI. To effectively operationalize the CGPS, two important programs were introduced: the Clean Green Pakistan Movement (CGPM) and the Clean Green Pakistan Index (CGPI). The CGPM is launched by Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2019 to implement the CGPS with the aim to involve citizens in order to promote greenery and the GBI throughout the country especially in cities to face the negative consequences of climate change. This drive focuses to seek volunteer participation of cities to implement the CGPS and creating in them the spirit and sense of owing their habitats and cities. This sense and their feeling to make the cities clean is a right track for effective implementation of the GBI. Moreover, this strategy also focused to engage educational institutions for promoting the GBI through their education and research, providing online trainings, and encouraging youth to bring novel ideas to promote the CGPS especially in Pakistani cities.

Another important strategy for implementation of the CGPS is the CGPI aiming to rank the cities based on their greenery and cleanliness. Through the CCPI, cities are being ranked against a set performance indicators or components of the CGPS for maintaining the GBI in cities. These components include safe drinking water, solid waste management, liquid waste management/hygiene, plantation and total sanitation. The purpose of this strategy is to set targets for cities and encourage competition among the cities for better performances. The implementation of the CGPS has started from Islamabad city. Therefore, studying the case of Islamabad is very important to investigate the drive of the GBI in Pakistan.

Despite these steps are taking for the GBI but there are multiple challenges and barriers to ensure effective adaptability and implementation of set targets in the CGPS due to weak local institutional adaptive capacity, absence of related policies at municipalities and cities level, weak urban management planning, lack of scientific research, and financial constraints. To fill this gap, the civil society organizations (CSOs) can play key role to address these challenges and help to urban administration in operationalization of the CGPM and ensure green infrastructure in Pakistani case. Moreover, various challenges are identified for adoption of the GBI in the form of scientific uncertainty and lack of awareness about the GBI, to its omission from planning processes and low confidence in its benefits (Drosou et al., 2019). The CSOs are important in helping to city and local administration to overcome these issues.

The role of the CSOs is internationally recognized especially after Paris Agreement in 2015 (Falkner, 2016). The CSOs are important for enhancing local capacity, playing a role of bridge between national and local governments, and pushing the local, subnational and national governments for devising and implementing relevant policies. The CSOs are critical stakeholder for climate adaptive governance and are valued an effective partner on implementing and monitoring climate policies at the local, subnational, national, and global levels (Bauer and Steurer, 2014). The CSOs act as a right platform to present the local communities and act as a mediator between community and city administration. The CSOs provide technical assistance to local communities and provide policy recommendations to local governments while devising different plans and programs for handling climate change and environmental related issues (Tschentsche, 2016). Therefore, the CSOs have a vital role to play in implementation of the GBI in urban centers. However, there are limited evidences that how practically the CSOs are contributing in implementation of the GBI in cities and how successfully they are playing a role to aligning the inter-governmental coordination for effective mechanisms towards the GBI.

This study advances the knowledge that how the CSOs are playing the role to implement the GBI in order to unlock its full potential in cities. It further contributes to identify role of the CSOs to address the challenges such as scientific uncertainty and lack of awareness about the GBI, its omission from planning processes and low confidence in its benefits for effective implementation of the GBI in cities. The study acts as a key foundation for local governance system for successful implementing the GBI policies in cities by looking the evidences from Islamabad city.

This study seeks to identify the role of the CSOs for promoting the GBI as adaptation strategy by studying the case of Islamabad city, Pakistan. The study focuses to investigate the initiatives of the CSOs for implementation of the CGPS in Pakistan. More specifically, the study investigates that how the CSOs are effective in bridging the intergovernmental relations gaps for implementation of the GBI policies? This study also identifies the hurdles and challenges for the CSOs for promoting the GBI. A case study methodology is opted for this research study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 CSOs and other stakeholders such as local district administration officials, the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) officials, related journalists and citizens of Islamabad.

Section snippets

Green and blue infrastructure, adaptive governance, and civil society organizations

The GBI is important to provide climate change services contributing substantially towards adapting and mitigating climate change (Orderud and Winsvold, 2012). The GBI is an innovative approach that combines water management and green infrastructure to maintain natural water cycles and enhance environmental and urban renewal (Drosou et al., 2019). European Union (E.U.) defines the GBI as ". is network of natural and semi-natural areas planned at strategic level with other environmental

Research methodology

The research methodology depends on the central research question and research objectives of the study. The main objective of this study is to identify and investigate the role of the CSOs for promoting the GBI as adaptation strategy in relation to the implementation of the CGPS by looking the case of Islamabad, Pakistan. The Islamabad city is chosen for this study because most of the CSOs are operating in Islamabad and the implementation of the CGPS is experimented in this city and later the

Results

A large number of the CSOs are established at the grassroots level in Pakistan. The CSOs are involved dealing with climate change and Pakistan's drive for the GG through the GBI. This research has focused to study the role of the CSOs for promoting the GBI as climate adaptation strategy to tackle climate change by studying the case of Islamabad city, Pakistan. Following are the key findings identified in this study:

An active role of the CSOs has seen for promoting the GBI in Islamabad. The CSOs

Discussion and analysis

The CSOs are key to develop innovations in the GBI in the context of climate change especially in urban areas. However, there is limited knowledge and scarcity of evidences presenting the actual role of the CSOs in implementing the GBI in cities. The case of Islamabad city has shown some key evidence to advance our knowledge on how the CSOs can be an effective contributor in maintaining the GBI in cities and adapting to climate change.

The CSOs have an important role to integrate climate change

Conclusion

The CSOs have key role for promoting the GBI as adaptation strategy tacking climate change especially in cities of developing world where governmental institutions have weak capacity and limited financial resources. The case of Islamabad city shows that the CSOs and their contributions are recognized by the local administration and they are playing an effective role in implementing the GBI in the city. The CGPS is one of latest and notable approaches of federal government towards the GBI as

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Muhammad Mumtaz: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Muhammad Mumtaz is single author of this manuscript.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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