An-Najah National University Organizes Workshop on “The Biodiversity Portal of Palestine”
On Sunday, September 20, 2015, Ecology Friends Association at An-Najah National University held a workshop entitled “The Biodiversity Portal of Palestine”, in collaboration with the Environment Quality Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Hanns Seidel Stiftung Foundation, at the Faculty of Science’s seminar hall on the New Campus.
The workshop was led by Mr. Imad Atrash, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Palestine Wildlife Society, who highlighted the goal of raising environmental awareness, particularly in schools through the creation of over 500 nature protection clubs. The focus now is on universities, with training for research students from six academic institutions.
Mr. Atrash compared traditional biodiversity documentation with modern technological methods, noting that Palestine is the first Arab country to develop a national electronic environmental database.
Established in 1999, the Biodiversity Portal has documented over 3,400 species and 400 types of animals, reptiles, and birds with images. A training course by Observation.org and officials from Beit Sahour was also held, attended by around 13 researchers, marking the first academic meeting of its kind nationwide.
