International training workshop on wildlife conservation

The Government will fully support  wildlife and eco-system conservation for sustainable biodiversity to achieve socio-economic development goals, said Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain

International training workshop on wildlife conservation

He was addressing inaugural session of 15-day International Training Workshop “Design, Survey and Analysis of Wildlife Populations” jointly organized by Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Climate Change, Snow Leopard Foundation-Pakistan and UNDP-Pakistan, at Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH).

Federal Secretary Science and Technology Captain ® Nasim Nawaz, Director General PMNH Dr. Muhammad Rafique, Director Snow Leopard Program Dr Byron Weckworth, Wildlife researcher and conservationist Dr. Muhammad Ali Nawaz and others were also present on this occasion.

The Minister said that Pakistan is a very beautiful country having too much biological diversity. He deplored that after visiting PMNH he came to know that various wildlife species have gone extinct due to various factors and many species are facing threats of extinction. Chaudhry
Fawad Hussain said the wildlife conservation departments are facing similar corruption and poor governance issues as the other departments and government is focusing on eliminating this menace. The minister emphasized upon the need to love wildlife because it is a beautiful colour of society.

PMNH Director General Dr. Muhammad Rafique said that management and conservation of biodiversity requires sound basis of knowledge about organisms and biology and the management often to have take immediate measures to safeguard species and habitats from prevailing and emerging threats.

The DG said the training workshop has been designed to build capacity of researchers, wildlife managers and conservationists in applied research in wildlife ecology.

Dr. Rafique said that the resource persons of the workshop include Dr. Chris Sutherland from University of Massachusetts, USA, Dr. Ojran Johansson from Sweden, Dr. Byron Weckworth, Dr. Justine Shanti Alexander and Dr. Tahir mehmood from NUST.