PESHAWAR: Provincial Minister for Environment, Wajid Ali Khan has called upon all the stakeholders to create awareness among people regarding importance of bio-diversity so that the species facing threats could be saved from being extinct.

Addressing a function jointly arranged by Wildlife Department, Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Forest and Fisheries Departments here on Saturday, Wajid Ali Khan said its time to give serious consideration to issues concerning biodiversity and earth.

It is need of the hour to create awareness among the masses about threats like habitat loss, deforestation, pollution, global warming etc.

The People must be educated about proper use of natural resources on sustainable basis.

“If these issues were not given serious consideration, we would not only create problems for our coming generation, but also for ourselves,” Wajid warned.

He also called upon ulema and religious scholars to clear the misconception about family planning. It is mostly opined by people that family planning is against Islam and more children can better serve religion.

In fact, he continued a well educated and healthy man is much better than ten illiterate and physically weak men.

He also held out assurance of his complete cooperation to the officials working in Environment department.

He said you should chalk out plans for protecting environment and I will advocate for you in Finance, Planning and other concerned departments.

Earlier, students of City School Nowshera presented beautiful tableaus in regard with environmental degradation and its effect on biodiversity.

The function was also addressed by Chief Conservator Wildlife Department, Saeed-uz-Zaman, Director Fisheries, Deyar Khan, Alamgir Khan from Forest Department and Shams from EPA.

The environmentalists threw light on biodiversity or Biological diversity. The term biodiversity, they said, is used to describe the variety of life on Earth. It refers to the wide variety of ecosystems and living organisms: animals, plants, their habitats and their genes.

Biodiversity is the foundation of life on Earth. It is crucial for the functioning of ecosystems which provide us with products and services without which we couldn’t live. Oxygen, food, fresh water, fertile soil, medicines, shelter, protection from storms and floods, stable climate and recreation - all have their source in nature and healthy ecosystems, they added.

In his concluding remarks, Deputy Secretary Environment, Shaukat Yousafzai stressed on strengthening inter-department coordination among institutions working on environment.