The fist Pakistan botanic garden conference on "Action Plan for Botanic Garden Network in Pakistan" concluded in the GC University Lahore on Saturday.
On the final day, three technical sessions were held, which were followed by recommendations of the experts. The conference was organised by Botany Department of GCU Lahore.
The mission statement of the moot was that the Pakistan Botanic Gardens Network promotes and supports the work of botanical gardens and associated institutions through education, conservation and sustainable use of plants for development, poverty alleviation and halting bio-diversity loss. This recommendation was put forward and suggested by Professor Dr Amin-Ul-Haq.
The foreign delegates, who addressed the conference and delivered their presentations, included Julia Willson, Education Officer from Botanic Garden Conservation International UK, Dr G H Dar from Jammu and Kashmir University, Dr Svitlana Osavlyuk from Ukraine Botanic Garden Ukraine and Sara Khan from New York Botanic garden USA. The national delegates, who delivered their presentations, included Mansoor Hameed from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Dr Raza Bhatti from Shah Abdul Latif University, Sindh, Dr Abdul Rasheed from Peshawar University, Dr Rubina Akhtar, Director National Herbarium, NARC, Islamabad and Dr M Rizvi from Hamdard University Karachi.
Dr M Afzal, Director, Punjab Forest Research institute Faisalabad and Dr Asrar M Khan from Qarshi Research Center, Hattar, NWFP, Dr Zaheer-ud-din, Zafar Siddiq and Faiza Sharif of GCU Lahore.
Later, Chairperson, Department of Botany, Professor Dr Amin-ul-Haq thanked the participants of the moot for their thought provoking and knowledge sharing ideas.
At the end of the Conference 'Lahore Declaration' was formulated.