The University of Karachi and Services for Environment and Mangrove Protection (SEMP) inked a memorandum of understanding to develop an urban forest on the campus.
The KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi and the President SEMP Dr Kanwal Nazim signed the MoU at the VC Secretariat on Wednesday. The KU Registrar Professor Dr Imran Ahmad Siddiqui, deans and teachers of various faculties, member syndicates, student and campus advisors, representatives of Karachi University Teachers Society and Karachi University Officers Welfare Association, and directors and section heads of the relevant departments and offices attended the MoU signing ceremony.
The KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi discussed the environmental concerns and mentioned that projects like urban forests and mass-scale plantation drives are a way forward to combat climate change.
He believed that this urban forest project would also help in improving the air quality in and around the campus and cleaning the nearby environment. “The pollution becomes a real threat for humans and nature and we have to take serious measures on an emergency basis to avoid the increase of carbon footprint in the environment.”
He nominated Dr Muhammad Faheem Siddiqui as the focal person for the urban forest project and shared that soon policy related to the care of plants, birds, and animals present within the KU premises would be designed with the inputs of all concerned departments and individuals.
Earlier, the KU Secretary of Landscape Gardening Council Dr Muhammad Faheem Siddiqui briefed the participants that the urban forest project would be a triangular activity among the KU, SEMP, and corporate sectors.
