Gorakh hills station of Dadu was discussed at length at a four-day "International Training Workshop on Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem" held at Doha's Qatar University. Gorakh Hills Development Authority's director-general, Dr Iqbal Saeed Khan, delivered a speech on "Ecosystems of arid and semi-arid hills" and also presented a case study on "Gorakh Hills". According to him, it was for the first time that Gorakh Hills station was discussed at an international forum.
Talking to Business Recorder, Dr Khan said that the international workshop which concluded on March 27 at College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, was jointly organised by the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) and the Qatar University College of Arts and Sciences.
In her inaugural speech, Dean of Qatar University's College of Arts and Sciences, Dr Eiman Mustafawi, said that the workshop was aimed at strengthening the planning, monitoring and conservation evaluation skills of project and programme managers across the region, Dr Khan quoted her as saying.
Regional Chair, IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, Dr Muhammad Zaheer Khan, in his welcome address, said: "Ecosystem services are direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being as they support our survival and quality of life either directly or indirectly".
According to Dr Khan participants of the workshop included biological and environmental sciences faculty and students of Qatar University's College of Arts and Sciences, experts and researchers from Qatar Foundation, Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation, Qatar Museums Authority, Friends of the Environment Society, and from various institutions of Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait.