Seminar on Water and Biodiversity

University of Agriculture Faisalabad is going to set up a Biodiversity Park aiming at sensitizing the youth and other stakeholders about the hazardous affects of biodiversity imbalance caused by human malpractices with the nature. The assertion was made by UAF VC Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan while presiding over a seminar on water and biodiversity in connection with International Day for Biological Diversity here at New Senate Hall of the University on Wednesday morning. The seminar was organized by Water Management Research Center of the University. Dr. Iqrar said UAF intends to initiate a PhD program in Biodiversity and Ecology to prepare a pool of professionals with state of the art capabilities to arrest the growing disorder in the nature. He was of the view that after oxygen, water was the most important element for life and its quality and quantity were facing serious issues in its various forms such as groundwater, river, oceans and lakes. The VC expressed his concerns over the mad-race of apply insecticides of plants that causes life threat to other crop friends insects “we need to regulate the environment rather than destroying the natural balance of the planet” he added. He recalled the case of recent floods in the country and said that the three floods in same number of years hit different areas all the time that invite the researchers to think and conduct research on such aspects. He said Pakistan was a rich country in having a number of world’s rarest animals and plants, which are now in danger because of habitat loss, overuse or pollution of the natural resources. Dr. Khan expressed his dismay in saying that Pakistan was ranked as the second country having the highest deforestation rate in the world “loss of forest habitat and degradation of our land and water resources are serious issues leaving devastating impact on Pakistan Biodiversity and showing implications on the country’s natural and agro-ecosystems” he described. He urged the government and people of the country to plant more and more trees as a part of the reforestation campaign. Dr. Allah Bakhsh Director WMRC highlighted the objectives of organizing the seminar. He said although rivers and lakes make up only 1% of the world’s geographic area, freshwater ecosystems however host a rich diversity of species. He maintained that about 70% of the protected habitats and species are water dependent and in this context, damaging pollution of the occasions, rivers and lakes pose a serious threat to the survival of biodiversity, which is affected by the umber of factors such as climate change hydrology, industrial pollution and degradation of the land and water resources. Dr. Tahir Siddiqui, Dr. Anjum Sohail, and Dr. Mansoor Hameed also spoke on the occasion. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal presented vote of thanks.