CEOP CEOP_AP Pakistan Karakorum Reference Site

The HKKH mountain ranges are extraordinarily high mountain chains, spanning over thousands of kilometers across 6 South Asian countries and encompassing an extensive diversity of flora and fauna, unparalleled natural beauty and many varied cultures. They harbour some of the world.s richest but atmospherically, climatically, geologically and ecologically sensitive and fragile environments and biodiversity, and many protected areas of profound importance are in these mountain regions. The glaciers in these mountains feed most of the major river systems in the region (Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow Rivers) - lifeline for hundreds of millions of peoples downstream. The Central Karakorum ecosystem in the Northern area of Pakistan is endowed with rich floral and faunal biodiversities, natural beauty and other natural resources such as forest resources. Askole is the last village on the route to the Baltoro Glacier and K2. It.s average elevation is 3000 m a.s.l., the village is on the right side of the valley and just north of the main river, on a moraine highland with small inclination toward the river, where local people carry out little agriculture. The station is on the lower, southern part of the moraine platform, near the edge above the river, and has open visibility toward East (valley upward), West (valley downward), South (in front of opposite side of the valley) and North (leading to the slopes of the mountain surrounding the village). The installation is located about 200 meters south from the Lorenzo Mazzoleni Dispensary in the middle of the cultivated area, protected by a resistant fencing.