Biodiversity Day Celebrated in Ziarat

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: The Ziarat office of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-Pakistan)  celebrated the International Biodiversity Day on 22 May 2010 at Ziarat with students from local schools. More than 160 students and their teachers belonging to Al-Hijrah Resident School, Tameer-e-Nau School, Al-Hamd Model Secondary School and Rahbar Model Secondary School participated in a 3 kilometer long “Biodiversity Day Walk” which started from Al-Hijra Resident School to Quaid Residency, Ziarat.

Later on, to mark the day a “Cleaning the Environment Competition” was also organized at a local tourists’ place, ‘Prospects Point’. The participating students collected 70 large bags of litter from the area weighing more than 800 kilograms and containing mostly plastic litter. The students from Tameer-e-Nau Model Public School, Ziarat secured first position by collecting the most garbage. The second and third positions were secured by students from Al-Hijrah Resident School, Ziarat. Certificates of appreciation were distributed among the winners and participating schools.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ghulam Qadir Shah, the Manager, IUCN Pakistan Juniper Conservation Project, Ziarat highlighted importance of the day. He stressed that our individual roles could make a difference in maintaining our biodiversity resources and sustainable environment. He praised the effort of students and their teachers in making the events successful and hoped that these events would be helpful in creating awareness among the masses to maintain a clean environment and would encourage them to dispose of their litter in an environmentally responsible manner. He encouraged the participating students to act as ‘environmental ambassadors’ in spreading message of biodiversity conservation and maintaining a healthy environment in their respective areas.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Khair Muahmmad, a teacher of Al-Hijrah Resident School, Ziarat gave a religious account of maintaining a clean and healthy environment by quoting examples from Hadiths. He emphasized upon the negative impacts of pollution on our environment and praised IUCN’s effort in creating environmental awareness among the masses. The group representatives from all the participating schools also spoke on the occasion. They pledged for playing their positive roles in motivating others towards nature conservation and creating a Healthy Environment in their areas. The others who were present on the occasion included, Mr. Tariq, Vice Principle and Mr. Ubaidullah from Al-Hijrah School and Mr. Mujeeb Irfan, Principle, Tameer-e- Nau School, Ziarat.

The International Biodiversity Day is celebrated worldwide on 22nd May each year.  The Day was adopted by UN General Assembly in December 2000 to commemorate the adoption of text of UN Convention on Biological Diversity on 22 May 1992.