The Department of Ecology at the College of Science at the University of Basra organized a scientific lecture on the date palm, its past, present and future.

The lecture aimed to draw attention to the palm tree and its exposure to comprehensive deterioration and destruction due to neglect and military operations.

The lecture, which was given by Dr. Abdul-Ridha Akbar Alwan, a lecturer in the Department of Ecology at the College of Sciences, included the palm family and its genera, date palm species, the geographical distribution of species in the world, and their environmental, social, economic and tourism importance.

The lecture recommended intensifying media and education campaigns to plant palm trees, preventing their uprooting and razing them, and greening desert areas, and officially adopting the palm tree as a national tree.