Conference on biodiversity held

Islamabad: Under the patronage of Prince El Hassan bin Talal, founding patron of the Islamic World Academy of Science (IAS), IAS and COMSTECH organised biodiversity conference here.

The purpose of the conference was to share information in preparation for the fifteenth meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which will be held in 2021, in Kunming, China. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General COMSTECH delivered welcome address in which he said that this event is focused on bringing various stakeholders on board in the OIC region for a unified view at the int’l biodiversity conference, scheduled to be held in 2021 in Kunming, China.

He appreciated IAS for its achievements and wished success for this premier organization of top scientists of the Muslim world, founded by COMSTECH.

Dr. Choudhary said that the lives of our evolutionary siblings depends on conserving biodiversity. He emphasized the need to respect all creations of Allah SWT, to live and prosper. He highlighted that every living being is interdependent on each other, loss of life is a loss of diversity.

He lamented that biodiversity is dropping everywhere at an alarming pace and the impact of biodiversity loss has already crossed nature’s limits of resilience.

He informed that within the OIC region, biodiversity is threatened from fast expanding limits of northern deserts in sub-Saharan and tropical Africa and Middle East as well as West Africa. Whereas in the East, sea level rise is impeding the limits of terrestrial biosphere of Island and deltaic countries. Glaciers are melting in central Asia, and in northern Afghanistan and Pakistan. All these factors are causing tremendous loss of biodiversity and thus loss of ecosystem services.

Dr. Choudhary said that the human animal interactions due to deforestation, urbanization, increasing footprint human activities, exotic eating habits are the key causes of zoonotic diseases, including the current COVID19 pandemic. The Coordinator General COMSTECH invited His Royal Highness to spare time for the launching of COMSTECH-IAS joint programs in near future.