Affiliate Disclosure
Last updated: 7 May 2026.
What this page covers
The CKNP website is operated by the Directorate of Central Karakoram National Park to provide independent, public-interest information about the park, its wildlife, its trekking corridors and how to visit it safely. Some pages on this site contain links to third-party products and services — insurance providers, books, recommended trekking gear, online courses. This page explains what those links are, when we use them, and how to interpret them.
Affiliate links
Some of the third-party links on this site are affiliate links. If you click through and complete a qualifying purchase, the relevant retailer or service provider may pay the park a small commission. The price you pay is not affected.
Affiliate revenue, where it occurs, supplements (it does not replace) the park’s operating funding. It is ringfenced for ranger salaries, the Baltoro campsite waste programme, the wildlife monitoring camera-trap network, and similar conservation-operations costs. We will publish an annual reconciliation of affiliate income against the operations it funds.
What we link to, and why
- Travel insurance providers — we link to specialised mountaineering insurers because trekkers visiting CKNP need helicopter-rescue cover that is genuinely difficult to obtain. We list providers known to cover Pakistan and high-altitude rescue. Any insurance recommendation requires you to read the policy small print yourself before purchase.
- Books, atlases and field guides — classic and current works on the Karakoram, mountaineering history, regional botany and wildlife. We link to bookseller pages (typically Amazon, Bookshop.org, AbeBooks) where you can buy a copy.
- Trekking gear and apparel — specialist mountain kit (boots, sleeping bags, sunglasses, packs) on dedicated gear pages, where the recommendation is editorial and the link allows readers to buy.
- Online courses and digital resources — high-altitude medicine training, Urdu language courses, photography courses with regional relevance. Only listed where genuinely useful.
What we do not do
- We do not run display advertising on this site.
- We do not accept payment in exchange for editorial content. Tour operator directory listings are clearly marked as paid listings on a public fee schedule and are subject to compliance criteria, not to who pays the most.
- We do not sell visitor data. Analytics is privacy-respecting; we do not run third-party advertising trackers.
- We do not link to products or services we would not personally recommend to a visitor walking into our Skardu office and asking for advice.
Editorial independence
An affiliate link to a product does not constitute an endorsement of every product made by that brand or service. It tells you that, of the options we surveyed, the linked product is one we consider acceptable for the use case described. Independent due diligence is always recommended — particularly for travel insurance, where exclusions and altitude limits change.
Disclosures on individual pages
Where a page on this site contains affiliate links, we mark them with the standard notation in line, or with a short disclosure block at the top of the page. Pages that contain no affiliate links carry no disclosure.
Comments and concerns
If you believe a recommendation on this site has been influenced by commercial considerations rather than visitor benefit, we would like to know. Email [email protected] with the subject line “Editorial concern”.
Changes to this disclosure
If we add new affiliate relationships or change the structure of how affiliate links appear, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Material changes will be announced on the home page for at least seven days.
For our broader privacy policy, see the Privacy Policy. For visitor services and the operator directory, see the Tour Operator Directory.