KARACHI – The geographic information system (GIS) laboratory was inaugurated at the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) provincial conservator’s office on Thursday.
Pakistan Wetlands Programme national programme manager Dr Ghulam Akbar and Forests and Wildlife Secretary Mushtaq Ali Memon inaugurated the GIS laboratory, which would enable the SWD to identify new sites of natural resources, update existing sites and develop a complete atlas of almost every site, anywhere in the country.
The Laboratory is a joint initiate of Atlanta-Georgia-based Earth Resource Data Analysis System (ERDAS), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Environment Ministry, Leica Geosystems, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), Global Environment Facility, ESRI International and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Interestingly, the important event was kept a secret affair and no media persons were invited. When some reporters attempted covering the event, they were allowed in.
“I had directed the WWF-Pakistan Sindh director to invite the media but I don’t know what went wrong,” Akbar said.
However, on contact, WWF-Pakistan Sindh director Rab Nawaz rejected the allegation. “The Forests and Wildlife secretary was in such a hurry that there was no time to invite media persons but no reporter was refused from covering the event,” Nawaz said.
Briefing on the importance of GIS during the inauguration ceremony, Akbar said the initiative would be instrumental in carrying out scientific assessments of protected areas in Sindh.
“Similar nodes have been established at all provincial wildlife departments in the country, which are connected to the main GIS laboratory,
