The Natural History Research Center and Museum, in cooperation with Student Affairs at the University of Baghdad, organized a workshop tagged (The negative effects of invasive alien plants on the Iraqi natural environment). The lecture was moderated by Assistant Lecturer Ali Kamel Wanas and delivered by Assistant Professor Dr. Hana Hani Al-Saffar on the occasion of the launch of the activities of the Global Entrepreneurship Week.
The workshop aimed to identify plants alien to the Iraqi environment through the diagnosis of plants and determine their scientific names based on the Iraqi national grass and research centers, as well as the Iraqi botanical encyclopedia, electronic applications, and verification of a specialist or scientific center in diagnosis, as well as identifying the plant as original or exotic based on the sixth national report of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2018 Iraqi Botanical Encyclopedia, and the site of the British Royal Gardens, Kew garden and the Iraqi national grass, studies and research. The workshop also dealt with the natural characteristics and features of these species to be invasive, methods of propagation, and their impact on the surrounding environment.
It recommended the importance of conducting studies and experiments before introducing any foreign plant proposed to be planted into the Iraqi environment, collecting data on the numbers and locations of these invasive alien plant species with a strategy to combat them and prevent their spread, as well as cooperating with international environmental organizations and neighboring countries to develop an international and regional plan to control the transmission of species.