University Organizes "Environmental Awareness Campaign on Invasive and Exotic Plants” Workshop
On Wednesday, the 18 th of January, His Excellency King Khalid University President, Prof.
Faleh bin Rajallah Al-Solami, attended the launch of the “Environmental Awareness
Campaign on Invasive and Exotic Plants” workshop, which was organized by Prince Sultan
bin Abdulaziz Center for Research, Environmental Studies and Tourism, at the University
City in Al-Qara’a. The launch also witnessed the presence of University employees,
representatives of Asir Development Authority and a number of agencies.
The Director of Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Center for Research, Environmental Studies and
Tourism, Dr. Rahma Al-Jurais, explained that the workshop includes four main topics, which
are: field inventory, identifying environment and human activities that contributed to the
spread of invasive and exotic plants , developing a strategic action plan in the short and long
term, as well as a plan to implement reduction and eradication.
Al-Jurais added, that the workshop aims to introduce the types of invasive plants and their
extent of spread, in addition to work on short and long-term mechanisms to contain their
spread and eradicate them, and identify the factors that helped their spread in the university
city and the surrounding environment. It also aims to raise the community's awareness to
enhance its role in combating such plants through training and volunteer work, as well as
finding an applicable plan for combating and eradicating invasive plants as a step towards
sustainable control, evaluation and follow-up with the aim to achieve the desired goals.
It is worth noting, that the workshop sought to involve the community in solving
environmental problems, provide promising solutions for invasive plants' residues after
eradicating them, as well as educating the community on the right behaviors followed in the
university city to serve the environment and its sustainability.
