Recent UN assessments indicate that an unprecedented rate of global change has threatened around one million species. This level of biodiversity crisis is likely to undermine progress towards UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, unless visible transformative measures across economic, social, political and technological dimensions are taken. To achieve this transformational change, the UN underscores the critical need for capacity building and generation of scientific knowledge on wildlife and ecosystems.

Qatar’s National Vision, 2030 provides a direction for the science-based management of biodiversity. The National Biodiversity Action Plan testifies serious knowledge gaps in Qatar’s terrestrial wildlife, and stipulates actions to verify species records through empirical data. Accurate information on the occurrence and distribution patterns of terrestrial is critical for their conservation planning. However, monitoring desert animals is notoriously difficult due to their elusive nature, behavioral adaptations, low densities, and the harsh environments they occupy.
This talk covers an overview of latest technology (camera traps, environmental DNA, drones, artificial intelligence) and analytical approaches that can help fill critical knowledge gaps for informed management of Qatar’s wildlife.

Dr. Nawaz has a PhD in Ecology and an experience of 20 years in the field of wildlife research and conservation.  His research focus is on understanding ecology, co-existence, and conservation issues of thewildlife in cold and warm deserts. Deploying field and molecular techniques, he tries to understand distribution patterns of sympatric wildlife species, factors thatinfluence their occupancy at the landscape level, their niches, and sources and spatialpattern of human-carnivore conflicts.