EPA, IUCN sign ‘agreement’ to monitor, control local biodiversity
Contract includes studying animal life in desert
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 12, (KUNA): Environment Public Authority (EPA) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have signed an agreement on monitoring and controlling biodiversity in different environments outside natural reserves.
In a press statement following the signing ceremony on Monday, EPA Chairman and Director General Sheikh Abdullah Al-Humoud Al-Sabah said the aim of this move is to document the components of biodiversity in Kuwait.
He added that the project concentrates on the documentation of fungi with various kinds in natural reserves.
He added that it also includes electronic connection with databases pertaining to biodiversity of the State’s research and educational institutions.
The scheme will enable the authority to understand completely biodiversity of the country’s desert, mainly outside natural reserves, he noted.
The contract includes studying plan and animal life in the deserts and taking the best ways to preserve them, he indicated.
Sheikh Abdullah pointed out that the contract will help EPA extend its partnership with IUCN to achieve the best goals and to maintain Kuwait’s obligations through the international agreements such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, under which the Mubarak Al Kabir Reserve was inaugurated in the Boubyan Island.
For his part, IUCN Regional Director Fahad Shereeda said in a similar statement that the contract is tasked with following up the implementation of Kuwait’s obligations to international and regional conventions on the protection of biodiversity.
He elaborated that the 30-month contract was initiated by the authority in order to document biological diversity of Kuwait’s natural reserves.