Doha, Qatar: The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) has entered the final stage of a project for developing Qatar’s biodiversity database platform.

The project aims to build a sustainable database for biodiversity and to create environmental maps of the ecosystem to identify important sites for biodiversity in the country.

It also aims at creating an electronic platform containing data related to biodiversity, listing all species of plants and animals registered in the country as part of the Qatar Digital Government Strategy 2023-2025.

MoECC organised a series of meetings and coordination sessions over past three days, which dealt with the final stages of completing the project to establish a biodiversity database in Qatar.

This came in partnership with UN Environment Programme’s Regional Office for West Asia (UNEP) and the World Conservation Monitoring Center.

The meetings continued for three days, during which the work teams responsible for establishing the project and the electronic knowledge management platform reviewed the timetable for the process of completing the database, which is scheduled to be launched this year.

They also reviewed the completed stages, and presented the initial design of the electronic platform in accordance with international standards, which includes a list of all species of plants and animals registered in the country, to be a reference that supports the process of preserving local living species in Qatar.

On January 29, the first meeting held at the MoECC headquarters witnessed a presentation on the latest phases of the project that had been completed.

The event was attended by Assistant Undersecretary for Protection and Natural Reserves Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Abdul Latif Al Muslimani; Director of the Wildlife Development Department, Muhammad Ahmed Al Khanji; and Head of the Marine Wildlife Department, Jassim Mohammed Lari.

The project work teams from the MoECC and UNEP discussed the work plan and future steps to overcome the existing challenges to complete the remaining stages of the project.

The second meeting, held at the headquarters of the Environmental Science Center at Qatar University, also discussed marine surveys of biodiversity in the country.

During the first workshop, which was held on January 30, a team from the World Conservation Monitoring Center gave a detailed presentation on the electronic platform, and provided an explanation of the modern technology used in the design, which will help platform users to perform all operations with ease and with high technology, in addition to develop an initial assessment to identify research user needs and review database.

A training workshop was held on January 31, where the project team conducted an advanced technological training course, in which the technical team at MoECC was trained.

The team will run the content of the project’s knowledge management platform, in cooperation with the ministry’s communications teams, after the official launch of the project this year.

The project to establish a biodiversity database in Qatar was launched in 2021 to build a database to preserve biodiversity in Qatar, and use it to prepare reports related to biodiversity, monitoring and decision-making.

© Dar Al Sharq Press, Printing and Distribution. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).