Fungal conservation in Arab countries

Department of Dental Basic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Duhok, Iraq. 2 Department of Biology, College of Education and Pure Science, University of Diyala, Iraq. Department of Biology, College of Education and Pure Science, University of Tikrit, Iraq. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt. Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Agronomic Research of Algeria, Algeria. Department of Biology, Education College for Pure Sciences, University of Mosul, Iraq. Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Suez Canal, Ismailia 41522, Egypt. Microbial Biosystems 6(1) (2021) 2021.1039

At the end of 2010 a group of Egyptian scientists and volunteers launched a series of activities to shed the light on fungi and fungal conservation. They organized more than 15 workshops organized by Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Egypt. The major objects of the aforementioned workshops were to raise the national awareness on Biodiversity and Conservation of Fungi. In 2013, Abdel-Azeem founded the Arab Society for Fungal Conservation (ASFC) as a pioneer society for fungal conservation in the Arab world and North of Africa (http://fungiofegypt.com/ASFC.html). The society founded in Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Suez Canal, Egypt as a private, voluntary, non-governmental organization. In 2016, Abdel-Azeem founded the Egypt's Mycologists Network (EMN) as a structured network of Egyptian mycologists, with a steering committee to guide and promote best practices, and to resolve relevant problems through collaboration between mycologists, amateur fungal groups, fungal conservation societies, regional natural parks and environmental agencies. Recently by the end of 2020 and due to these previous activities various networks have been founded by ASFC in Iraq, Algeria and Pakistan by mycologists and academia from these countries to illustrate the concept of fungal conservation through collaboration between decision makers, mycologists, fungal conservation societies, individual enthusiasts, national protectorates and environmental agencies. Based on aforementioned information we presented here the updated news concerning Fungal conservation efforts in Arab countries.
At the end of 2010 a group of Egyptian scientists and volunteers launched a series of activities to shed the light on fungi and fungal conservation. They organized more than 15 workshops organized by Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Egypt. The major objects of the aforementioned workshops were to raise the national awareness on Biodiversity and Conservation of Fungi. In 2013, Abdel-Azeem founded the Arab Society for Fungal Conservation (ASFC) as a pioneer society for fungal conservation in the Arab world and North of Africa (http://fungiofegypt.com/ASFC.html). The society founded in Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Suez Canal, Egypt Abdel-Azeem (2014) published an article on a good candidate for International Fungus Day and due to his national and international efforts to conserve fungi, ASFC declared the 20 of February 2016 as Egypt's National Fungus Day in Bibliotheca Alexandria which supported and accepted by many international societies and mycologists e.g. the Convention on Biological Diversity (Abdel-Azeem 2017, Microbial Biosystems, 2, 1-5 In 2016, Abdel-Azeem founded the Egypt's Mycologists Network (EMN) as a structured network of Egyptian mycologists, with a steering committee to guide and promote best practices, and to resolve relevant problems through collaboration between mycologists, amateur fungal groups, fungal conservation societies, regional natural parks and environmental agencies.
Recently by the end of 2020 and due to these previous activities various networks have been founded by ASFC in Iraq (http://fungiofegypt.com/Network/Iraq/index.html), Algeria (http://fungiofegypt.com/Network/Algeria/index.html) and Pakistan (http://fungiofegypt.com/Network/Pakistan/index.html) by mycologists and academia from these countries to illustrate the concept of fungal conservation through collaboration between decision makers, mycologists, fungal conservation societies/ individual enthusiasts, national protectorates and environmental agencies.
Andres Dahlberg and Greg Mueller trained Algerian and Iraqi teams on how to apply IUCN red-listing categories and criteria for fungi. Mycologists from Egypt, Algeria and Iraq started to select and assess some taxa for evaluation under IUCN criteria. The Fungal Red list Initiative now included European-MENA initiatives based on the proposed activities of mycologists in MENA (http://iucn.ekoo.se/iucn/species_list/event/13#tabspecies-list-thumbs-events).
Iraqi team assessed different taxa of fungi e.g., desert truffles, Helvella and Morchella, while Algerian team started to assess ectomycorrhizal taxa in Algeria.   re%20conservation.) and help to establish a legal framework of mycologists networks for the long-term sustainability of biodiversity and fungal conservation in the MENA.