“In response to Shell-Premier claims that they will use "clean" extraction technologies in Kirthar National Park: "We don’t know what technologies they are going to use. They could use magic wands for all we care, but the goal remains illegal and morally unacceptable.”

—Aly Ercelawn, Citizens Committee on Kirthar

Stop Oil/Gas Development in Kirthar National Park / Pakistan - Victory

Kirthar National Park is Pakistan's first and largest of five national parks. Located 180 kms northeast of Karachi in Sindh province, Kirthar is the center of a complex of protected areas of great scenic beauty and ecological importance. It includes archaeological sites dating back to 3500 BC. The park is also home to 20,000 tribal people who depend on its resources for their survival. The Kirthar watershed provides the people of Karachi and Hyderabad with water for drinking, agriculture and industry.

All of Kirthar's precious natural and historical resources now stand threatened by an illegal contract for oil and gas development.

Illegal Concession
In 1997, in violation of Sindh provincial laws, the Directorate General of Petroleum Concessions, of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, granted a concession for oil and gas development to Premier Oil Group, which later formed a joint-venture company with Shell Oil Group, now known as Shell-Premier. The Shell-Premier concession for the Dumbar Block covers more than 90% of Kirthar National Park.

Environmental and other citizens' organizations quickly pronounced the deal illegal, citing the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance of 1973, which prohibits "clearing or breaking up any land for cultivation, mining or for any other purpose in the national parks of Sindh." A 1992 Sindh Wildlife Amendment Act and a 1997 Sindh Govt. Notification further restrict development activities within the park.

Public outcry successfully stopped construction of a road through Kirthar National Park in the early 1990s; Pakistani organizations have now formed a coalition called the Citizens Committee on Kirthar to protect the park once again. The government accuses the coalition of being "anti-development," saying that people living near the park stand to prosper from oil and gas development. But the Committee points to Sui, a city where Pakistan's largest natural gas reserves have been developed for many years, yet local people are still struggling to get cooking gas connections in their homes.

Broken Promises
The Citizens Committee on Kirthar charges the government and Shell-Premier with betraying agreements they signed with environmental groups in January 2000. The January agreement called for completion of a baseline study of Kirthar's biodiversity and development of a park management plan, prior to any consideration of oil/gas development. The citizen participation mechanisms built into the January agreement have been ignored (citizen groups have been systematically excluded from meetings), and Shell-Premier is already conducting its own Environmental Impact Assessment, a clear step toward oil development and therefore illegal.

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