At UN, Pakistan highlights Markhor - its proud national animal - as a symbol of resilience

UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th May, 2026) The Markhor, Pakistan’s national animal, is a celebrated conservation success story, Pakistani Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told a side-event marking the International Day of the Markhor at UN Headquarters in New York.

"Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the 'mountain monarch's" population steadily rebounded over the past decade, he said at the event convened by the Permanent Missions of Pakistan and Tajikistan in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Today, the Pakistani envoy added, this revival serves as a global model for community-driven wildlife protection

Native to the rugged, high-altitude mountains of the country, Markhor represents the majestic, untamed beauty of Pakistan's northern landscapes and its rich biodiversity.

Monday's gathering brought together diplomats, UN officials, conservation experts and environmental partners to spotlight the Markhor as an iconic species of Central and South Asia and a flagship for the protection of fragile mountain ecosystems.

In his remarks, Ambassador Asim Ahmad warned of the challenges, such as climate change, which is fundamentally altering the ecosystems that the Markhor depends upon. The shifting tree lines and prolonged rainfall deficits are exposing oak forests — a Primary food source for the Markhor — to new disease pressures and vegetation loss.

He described warming temperatures as driving apex predators like the snow leopard to ever higher altitudes in parts of Pakistan, thus compounding the problem. He said that the situation has disrupted the predator hierarchy, with lynx and other predators now roaming freely and hunting Markhor kids far more intensively.

“While Pakistan has made significant strides against poaching, illegal hunting remains a persistent threat across the species' range states; These are not isolated pressures — they are interconnected, and they are accelerating,” he said.

The Markhor, he added, has defied extinction once, but sustaining that recovery demands more than national will, adding that it demands scaled-up international cooperation to address new and emerging challenges.

In his keynote address, Bahodur Sheralizoda, Chairman of the Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of Tajikistan, highlighted his country's successful recovery of the Markhor population, which had fallen to nearly 300 in the 1990s and has since increased to more than 7,000 through scientific monitoring, community-based protection, political will and responsible wildlife management.

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Jamil Ahmad, Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, placed the Markhor conservation within the broader environmental crisis facing mountain regions. He warned that highlands are warming faster than lowlands, with glacier melt, snow cover decline, permafrost thaw and water stress placing ecosystems, livelihoods and energy investments at risk.

Dr. Sofie Sandström Jaffe, Permanent Observer of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said the International Day of the Markhor recognizes both an iconic species and the mountain ecosystems on which nearly half of the world’s biodiversity hotspots depend. She described the Markhor as a barometer of ecosystem health and stressed that its recovery demonstrates what is possible when communities are empowered, science guides management and cooperation extends across borders.

The panel discussion examined the health, ecological and legal dimensions of Markhor conservation. Dr. Chris Walzer of the Wildlife Conservation Society warned that disease transmission between livestock and wildlife is among the most serious threats to mountain ungulates, particularly as climate change increases pressure on high-altitude habitats.

Dr. Zalmai Moheb, wildlife biologist and member of the IUCN Caprinae Specialist Group, described the Markhor as a model for other mountain ungulates, while cautioning that populations remain fragmented in parts of the species’ range and that reliable data is still lacking in countries affected by insecurity.

Professor Paolo Galizzi of Fordham University school of Law emphasized the importance of international legal frameworks, including CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the Convention on Migratory Species, and proposed that a regional agreement on the Markhor conservation could help address shared threats such as disease, climate change and habitat fragmentation.

Speakers emphasized that the Markhor’s recovery in parts of Central and South Asia demonstrates the power of political will, community ownership, scientific monitoring and international cooperation. At the same time, they warned that continued progress cannot be taken for granted.

The event concluded with a call to transform awareness into action and to use the International Day of the Markhor as a platform for biodiversity protection, ecosystem restoration and sustainable development for mountain communities and future generations.