A view from one of the MECC workshops.
DOHA: The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MECC) represented by the Wildlife Development Department, concluded Thursday a series of preparatory workshops for the Qatar Biodiversity Database Project, in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme’s West Asia Office.
The three-day workshops aimed to enhance the capacities of Ministry officials, policymakers, and stakeholders in biodiversity planning and reporting. This comes as part of the ongoing partnership with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), to establish a comprehensive national platform that supports environmental decision-making and contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Assistant Director of the Wildlife Development Department Khalid Al Mohannadi, explained on this occasion that the project is one of the Ministry’s strategic tools for protecting the environment and conserving biodiversity. He noted that the digital platform will include comprehensive data, including species lists and spatial and temporal distribution maps, and will enable interaction between decision-makers, experts, and nature enthusiasts.
The workshops also addressed scientific policy tools such as the UN Biodiversity Laboratory (UNBL) and the ENCORE tool, and discussed the outcomes of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 16), in addition to a review of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
