Inception Workshop on Pakistan’s National Biodiversity Clearing House Mechanism was organized at Hillview Hotel Islamabad on 07 – 08 May, 2012. A total number of 60 participants from forest, wildlife, fisheries, irrigation, agriculture and tourism departments attended the workshop.

Mr. Umeed Khalid, Conservator Wildlife, National Council for the conservation of wildlife gave the welcome remarks. He welcomed the participants and highlighted the status of biodiversity and importance of Clearing House Mechanism in Pakistan.

Dr. Shehzad Jehanghir, Deputy Inspector General Forests, presented about the Convention on Biological Diversity and its implementation along with the targets and action plans.

Dr. Ghulam Akbar, National Programme Manager, Pakistan Wetlands Programme highlighted the major aims of the inception workshop.

The main points of the presentations were:

1)    Dissemination of National CHM Strategy and its finalization

2)    Capacity Building of the stakeholders and sharing experiences for better implementation of CHM

3)    Promote awareness and education on biodiversity of Pakistan

4)    Sharing Pakistan’s National CHM website layout and design

Syed Mehmood Nasir Inspector General Forests was the chief guest at the inaugural session. Chief Guest admired the efforts incorporated by the organisers of the workshop. He further added there is an immense need to implement these types of initiatives. The GIS Nodes developed by the Pakistan Wetlands Programme will be utilized as the CHM capacity building nodes. At the final day recommendations and suggestions were collected and will be incorporated in the strategy and the website.

Pakistan as the signatory of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is implementing various Programme of Works (PoWs) towards fulfillment of objectives of the Convention. Under Article 18.3 of CBD, a global Clearing House Mechanism (CHM) has been established at the level of Convention Secretariat. As per decision X/15, CHM is meant to contribute in implementing Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 through effective information services and scientific & technical cooperation, knowledge sharing and information exchange. At national levels, CBD member countries are establishing National CHMs for sharing of knowledge, information and data related to biodiversity to facilitate implementation of their respective biodiversity strategies and action plans.

Ministry of Climate Change (former Ministry of Environment), as the focal Ministry for Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is developing Pakistan’s National Clearing House Mechanism in collaboration with WWF-Pakistan with the support of GEF and UNEP. The National Focal Point (NFP) for CBD and NFP for CHM will be the custodian and WWF – Pakistan will be assisting the Ministry of Climate Change in developing and maintaining the Pakistan’s national CHM. A draft national CHM Strategy for Pakistan has been formulated and CHM website has been designed by WWF – Pakistan; both have to be finalized and adopted after consultation with key stakeholders including data producer and potential user groups. Data collection, formatting and authentication have been started by the Ministry through official channel for populating national CHM. The CHM website is planned to be launched officially on the occasion of “International Biodiversity Day” on 22^nd May, 2012.

For further information please visit the website (www.pakistanwetlands.org) or contact:

Contact Nasir Iqbal Malik, Coordinator, Awareness Raising and Communications, Pakistan Wetlands Programme, on landline 051-2114125-9 & personal cell no. 0301 5536468