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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Call to make contribution to conserve plants

By Our Correspondent
February 22, 2018

LAHORE: The timeline of climate change is too fast to consider the current human efforts for conservation and their response.

It was stated by Kamil Khan Mumtaz, a renowned architect of Lahore and heritage conservation expert, on Wednesday while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the fourth international conference, “Role of Botanic Gardens in Climate Change: Adaptation and Mitigation” at the Government Collage University, Lahore. Kamil Khan Mumtaz and other environmentalists addressing the conference called for multiplying and intensifying the human efforts for conserving biodiversity.

Eminent American botanist Prof Dr Mary E. Barkworth highlighted the importance of technology for protecting biodiversity. She briefed the participants about her project of digitalisation of plants data through her open software.

Dr Amin U khan, a distinguished professor and bio-conservation expert, said that plants' conservation was becoming increasingly important as threats to plant diversity had intensified. Botanic Gardens don’t have enough resources for achieving the objectives of the global strategy of plant conservation (GSPC), so they need wide range of support from governments, NGOs, scientific, technical and educational institutions, business and industries, communities and individuals. He also shared his personal experiences from different conservation projects in Pakistan, saying that it was essential to incorporate alternative models based on adaptive management and trans-disciplinary science to actually solving on-the-ground problems. On this occasion Dr Amin U Khan also presented his new booklet about Hiran Minar.

Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah said that environment protection was their collective responsibility so every individual and organisation of the world should play its role in it. He shared that this was the seventh international conference in GCU in the last few months.

The three-day conference has been organised by the Pakistan Botanic Gardens Network Secretariat (PBGNS) in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission, World Wildlife Fund and Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Besides from all provinces of Pakistan, the environmentalists from Egypt and the US are also participating in the conference. As many as 30 research papers are scheduled to be presented at conference on the themes of drought and plant-water relations, seed bank, species’ selection for urban greening, forest conservation and environment-friendly technologies.

PTI: PTI distributed sweets to celebrate the supreme court’s verdict to disqualify Nawaz Sharif from holding his party office. The party workers gathered at Chairman Secretariat and congratulated one another over the verdict. Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Aleem Khan, head of PTI Central Punjab Chapter, said the court’s verdict reflected the voice of entire nation. PTI Senate candidate Dr Zarqa Taimur in a statement hailed the verdict while terming it voice of the entire nation saying the court had declared that a corrupt person couldn’t hold the command of any political party.