Canadian Journal of Pure & Applied Sciences

Abstract: Pakistan supports a wide array of ecosystems and has a unique and beautiful biodiversity, that belongs to a blend of ecosystems and habitat. These habitats support a large number of species that contribute to the overall vertebrate and invertebrate biodiversity. Pakistan being zoogeographically rich country contains great diversity of wild fauna and flora. There are 198 species of mammals, avifauna includes 700 species, herpetofauna consist of 177 species of reptiles and 22 species of amphibians, while Freshwater resources contains 198 species of freshwater fishes. A rich diversity of invertebrates is also found as 5000 species of invertebrates are reported in Pakistan. Currently human population pressure, increasing of rate of poverty, habitat destruction, poaching, urbanization, less implementation of rules and regulations and lack of knowledge about the conservation and management, several important species are declining. In this scenario protected areas are an effective and important tool in conserving and protecting the threatened wildlife species and ecosystems. There are three types of protected areas in Pakistan which include National parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Game Reserves. Recently, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K), Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have revised wildlife legislation and included several new additional categories. Today, there are over 414 protected areas including 30 National Parks, 92 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 97 Game Reserves, 145 Community Conservation Areas/ Community Game Reserves, 21 Private Game Reserves, 03 Marine Conservation Areas, 02 Wildlife Refuges and 24 Wildlife Parks. Pakistan like many other countries is severely influenced by unfavorable impacts of climate change. Climate change is now being the globally important phenomenon.The awareness relevant to climate disasters is rising day by day. There is a need to develop solution based policies to cope up the extremities of climatic disastrous scenarios. Various adaptations should be done to overcome the adverse effects of climate change on our ecological assets. In Pakistan, the standard evaluation of protected areas is still required to access the population and status of the wild animals and threats of key species population and effectiveness of the conservation and management. The review observed that management of the Protected Areas need to be updated and trained to wildlife staff according to the new and survey and modern management techniques. In this review, we include our national parks filed studies (Ghalib et al., 2013; Ghalib et al., 2015; Khan and Saima, 2011; Khan et al., 2010; Khan et al., 2011; Khan et al., 2013) and other available published data of vertebrate fauna of Lal Suhanra National Park, Kirthar National Park, Hazarganji Chiltan National Park and Hingol National Park for future studies and as reference paper