Distribution of the Endangered Haloxylon persicum Bunge ex Boiss &Buhse Ghada and conservation for food security In Qatar
Authors: Elazazi Elsayed M. 
Published: June 2019

Haloxylon persicum Bunge ex Boiss &Buhse native and rare plant in the state of Qatar known as Ghada, Qadha, Rimth, it's endangered, high palatable species, a favored plant to stabilize sand dunes, conserve water and soil, prevent soil desertification, and improve environmental conditions. It's small tree or shrub to 3 m, trunk 10- 25 cm in girth; stem richly branched, glabrous; young branches slender, green; leaves 0.5 – 1.25 mm, scale-like, acute, connate into a cup, with a tuft of short hairs in the axil; flowers on short spicate branchlets. It's evergreen plant blooms at the end of August and during September. The freshly harvest seeds recorded high germination percentage but it's rapidly lost viability The species distribution in the Middle East, the species is distributed mainly in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, and central and northwestern Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula, the plant distributed in deep, often drifting sand. Previous studded recorded it east of Salwa at sand dunes (the area now known as Al Mashbiya), near the Saudi Arabian border. Haloxylon persicum used for grazed by camels; highly valued as firewood by Bedouin and desert villagers. Through years 2012 to 2017, the Genetic Resources Department, Department of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Municipality and Environment in Qatar collected, surveyed and has some inventory activities for flora in Qatar. but they did not record any distribution of Haloxylon persicum only recorded in Al Mashbiya at Lareeq the state of Qatar is home to some unique and important habitats, Qatar has very limited number of trees and shrubs but due to changes in land use, including increased development, camel overgrazing, human activities, habitat reduction has emerged as a significant threat to the biodiversity of this country. In the last decade, there has been increasing effort to protect and conserve global biological diversity. Significant importance has been placed on new development being undertaken in a sustainable way and the restoration of landscapes damaged by past actions. These genetic relatives of crops also still remain largely uncollected and therefore they are largely unevaluated and unavailable for future breeding programs in agriculture and farming. The conservation of these genetic resources preserves the invaluable raw material needed to develop new varieties of crops in response to changing environments and climate. Qatar is firmly committed to conserving its biodiversity and is party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and within this the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and has developed its own National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). Based on an assessment of the status of biodiversity in the country, Qatar's NBSAP identified a total of 11 strategic goals that identify the most pressing biodiversity issues in Qatar such as protected areas, agrobiodiversity and desertification, scientific research, education and public awareness, invasive alien species etc. To enable Qatar to address both the NBSAP and GSPC targets in relation to plant conservation effectively, fundamental baseline data needs to be obtained. Regional Red Lists following the IUCN Categories and Criteria are an invaluable tool to assess the risk of extinction to species within a country, informing national and regional conservation planning and directly addresses key objectives of both the GSPC and NBSAP. Many reports suggested the Haloxylon persicum Extinct in Qatar but the current study record the excellent site for distribution of Haloxylon persicum there are more than 50 individuals plant recorded using GPS points and satellites map. The distributions maps were prepared. The current research collected seeds, herbarium samples, and DNA samples and their conserved in Qatar gene bank and herbarium.