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Qatar’s Biodiversity Database Platform Set For 2024 Launch
The project, in collaboration with UNEP, aims to preserve local species and gather valuable environmental data.
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) has reached the final phase of a project to create Qatar’s biodiversity database platform.
The primary objective of this endeavor is to construct a sustainable biodiversity database and generate ecological maps of Qatar to pinpoint significant biodiversity sites across the nation. The project will establish a large electronic repository encompassing biodiversity-related and environmental data, cataloging all indigenous plant and animal species in the country in alignment with the Qatar Digital Government Strategy 2023-2025.
The scheduled launch for the database is set for later this year. Experts have already examined the project’s completed phases and unveiled the electronic platform’s initial design, which conforms to international standards.
With the project nearing completion, MoECC recently organized a series of meetings and coordination sessions over a three-day period, which dealt with the final stages of completing the project.
During a workshop held on January 30, a team from the World Conservation Monitoring Center delivered an in-depth presentation on the electronic platform, demonstrating the cutting-edge technology in its design. The software will facilitate seamless user operations and provide advanced capabilities alongside an initial assessment to identify research user requirements and review the database.
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On January 31, another training workshop was conducted, in which the project team oversaw advanced technological training for MoECC’s technical team. The trained group of users will manage the content of the project’s knowledge management platform in collaboration with the ministry’s communication teams after the official project launch later this year.
Launched in 2021, the Qatar biodiversity database project’s overarching goal is to compile a database for preserving the nation’s biodiversity. This resource will also support the creation of reports related to biodiversity, monitoring efforts, and decision-making processes.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
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The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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