Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)

Azad Jammu and Kashmir is a selfgoverning region administered by Pakistani authorities. Kashmiri society in AJK is largely agrarian, with a noticeably high rural to urban population ratio of 88:12.16 While AJK has long been well-known for its natural resources and agricultural outputs – such as the Kashmiri apple – in recent years, climate change has taken a toll on the environment and these resources, leaving many Kashmiris without the natural wealth of their predecessors.17

As an agrarian society whose population depends on the environment for energy resources, agricultural and livestock production, and subsistence farming, AJK remains one of the most vulnerable regions to the impacts of climate change.

According to the AJK’s Ministry for Planning & Development, AJK the biggest climate threats to the region are as follows:18

- Increasing temperature levels which are expected to lead to a “small but fundamental shift in weather patterns within AJK,” which will negatively affect crops, livestock and human beings. With changing temperatures come reduced crop outputs, an increase in crop diseases and a loss of plant and animal biodiversity. Livestock and human beings will be more susceptible to epidemics and diseases.

- Soil erosion and land degradation is an increasingly pressing issues due to changes in hillslope hydrology, increasingly poor vegetation cover, and extreme rainfall events.

- Reduced river flow and drought due to unreliable precipitation patterns will have a severe impact on water, energy, food and economic security

- The increasing “frequency and intensity” of extreme rainfall events such as cloudbursts and shifts in existing monsoon precipitation patterns – coupled with rising temperatures — will impact river flows and hillslope hydrology, which is expected to lead to limit freshwater availability and trigger an increase in natural disasters such as flooding, landslides and avalanches.

- Climate change-induced floods will lead to loss of life, property, infrastructure, and livelihood means. Moreover, these floods have the potential to transport solid waste that is commonly dumped around rivers and streams which will further impact water quality, which is already at high contamination levels.

Alongside changing weather conditions, climate change is accompanied by an increased risk of natural disasters. In 2005, AJK suffered a disastrous and massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake, which killed over 86,000 people, injured 38,000 more, and rendered 3.5 million Kashmiris homeless, making it one of the most destructive earthquakes in contemporary times. The earthquake triggered several thousand landslides, splitting mountains, disturbing and closing off fresh water sources, and burying entire villages. Many Kashmiri villagers sought refuge in urban areas such as Muzaffarabad, which continues to struggle to accommodate an everincreasing urban population. Ultimately, it is the most impoverished and vulnerable members of society that face the most severe consequences of climate change due to a lack of resources, financial means and access to innovative information and technology to cope with the changes in weather. In AJK, women and girls remain the most vulnerable population to the impacts of climate change, due to their lower socioeconomic status and domestic roles and responsibilities.

In the average Kashmiri household, women and girls are largely responsible for cropping and livestock farming, as well as the collection of water, wood, medicines and other forest resources to secure food and income for their families. In fact, the government of AJK’s Planning and Development Department estimates that women and girls typically spend 3-4 hours each day fulfilling these tasks.

The Department notes with concern that climate change is expected to increase the labour burden of women and girls as natural resources become scarcer and agricultural production becomes more difficult with changing weather patterns. Women and girls will feel the impacts of climate change disproportionately and will be at higher risk for falling into poverty as the ability to engage in traditional subsistence farming wanes. Climate change thus will have a negative impact on the health, well-being and quality of life of women and girls, as well as their families and local Kashmiri communities who depend upon their agricultural and resource-based activities.