MME signs deal with UNEP to establish biodiversity database in Qatar

Doha: The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) and the United Nations Environment Program’s Office for West Asia (UNEP) signed an agreement on a project regarding the establishment of a biodiversity database in the State of Qatar.

The signing ceremony was attended by Minister of Municipality and Environment and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaei, and Regional Development Coordinator of UNEP’s Regional Office for West Asia Sabine Sakr. 

The agreement was signed by Assistant Undersecretary for Environmental Affairs at MME Engineer Hassan Jumaa Al Mohannadi, and UNEP West Asia Regional Director and Representative Sami Dimassi. 

H E Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie explained that signing this agreement comes within the series of fruitful cooperation activities between MME in the State of Qatar and UNEP’s Office for West Asia, pointing out that it seeks to lay solid foundations for joint cooperation between the two sides, by developing the national information management system and establishing a biodiversity database in the State of Qatar. 

He said the importance of this agreement lies in its consistency with many of our development plans and strategies related to environmental affairs, as the biodiversity database in Qatar will ensure substantial progress in our environmental development paths, especially since the implementation of this project is one of our strategic objectives in each of the National Development Strategy of the State of Qatar, and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in the State of Qatar, in addition to the sustainable strategy of MME.

Eng. Hassan Jumaa Bojumhur Al Mohannadi said that the signing of the agreement is the culmination of the efforts made to formulate the project in a national framework based on knowledge and periodic documentation of biodiversity data in Qatar.

The agreement aims to protect the sources of biodiversity through organising knowledge and periodic documentation within a national framework concerned with collecting the available biodiversity resources data within an integrated platform in which decision-makers, experts in the field of biology, ecotourism and nature enthusiasts interact easily, with an agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of the elements of biodiversity in the Qatari environment. 

The project aims to build a sustainable database that contributes to the preservation and sustainable use of data at the national level for the preparation of reports related to biodiversity, monitoring and decision-making. 

The database will also support facilitating and promoting the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements, and the project will also create an online knowledge management platform to give decision-makers in Qatar access to use and benefit from the information in processes related to national development and biodiversity.

The draft agreement also aims to document and update information and data related to the sustainable management of biodiversity in the country, to create environmental maps showing the ecosystem and its species, as well as to identify important sites for biodiversity in the country, and to publish regulations related to international agreements related to the sustainable management of biodiversity.

As seen on Peninsula Qatar  Image Credits Peninsula Qatar