Marking World Environment Day, Workshop on Protecting Environment and Coastal Heritage Held in Lattakia

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated worldwide on June 5th in different ways with the purpose of drawing attention to the threats facing environment.

The Green Hills Association for Coastal Environment Protection in Lattakia province has recently held the fourth workshop on environment and coastal heritage at Dar Al-Assad for Culture.

The four-day environmental and scientific  event was held in cooperation with the Lattakia’s directorates of  Culture, Environment, Tourism, Antiquities and Museum, Social Affairs and Labor as well as with the School Theatre Ensemble in Lattakia province and the Youth Environmental Researchers Club (EYRC) at Tishreen University.

 Shedding light on the event the Syriatimes e-newspaper interviewed Dr. Aziz saqr , Head of the Green Hills Association. He said “environment is our common home, we must take action and enhance our efforts to protect the diversity of our environment and reduce direct and indirect threats to environment.” He affirmed the need to include as many people, government establishments and civil society associations as possible to identify the environmental causes and means to tackle them.

Dr. Saqr underscored that the fourth workshop on environment and coastal heritage aimed to shed light on the role of civil society associations and educational establishments in  raising awareness about the importance of spreading environmental culture and preserving the heritage as well as about the biodiversity and stability of ecosystems, about environment pollution and its responsibility for spreading chronic diseases and about man’s relationship with environment.

He pointed out that a number of lectures were delivered by specialists mainly on the environment’s  safety and balance, environment and heritage, the role of the internet in raising the environment awareness and supporting the tourism marketing, the importance of medical and natural plants in treating chronic diseases, the environment pollution ‘s relation with general health as well as the folk and cultural heritage in the Syrian coast.

The fourth workshop was characterized by holding a collective comprehensive dialogue symposium on problems that are facing the costal environment, according to Dr. Saqr.

He indicated that the scientific event was accompanied by holding several scientific exhibitions showcasing posters as well as paper and electronic library on environment issues, a number of handcrafts works including wood-burned boards, bamboo leaves art works, writing and embroidery with grain and bark, photographic plates on heritage and environment topics in addition to drawings by children to stress the need to pay attention to environment causes since early age .

“The fourth workshop concluded its activities by organizing a tour to a number of tourism, cultural and heritage sites, in addition to forests in Lattakia countryside as well as the late Prof. Fawaz Al-Azki ‘s geological museum” Dr, Saqr concluded.

It is worth mentioning that the Green Hills Association was established in Lattakia province in 2011 by the approval of the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry. It is a non-profit civil association that seeks spreading and deepening the people’s interest in the natural environment of the coastal areas with the aim of preserving and promoting it and ensuring the sustainable development for its sources through investing individuals’ skills, talents and capacities.

Interviewed by : Rawaa Ghanam