Conservation matters, and here is what the UAE is doing to uphold that ethos.

As the story goes, it was on a tour of Al Ain’s early development projects decades ago that Sheikh Zayed laid the groundwork for conservation in the UAE.

Glancing over the plans for a new road, he noticed that there was a problem. It was an old tree, and growing in the middle of the proposed new route, it was soon to become a casualty. However, rather than allowing the tree to be chopped down, Sheikh Zayed demanded that the road be rerouted.

It planted the seed of a nationwide ideology for conservation that defined not only Sheikh Zayed’s rule, but also the decades that followed.

Conservation nation

The Arabian oryx, hunted to near extinction some 50 years ago and classified as ‘endangered’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List since 1989, has now been upgraded to ‘vulnerable’ thanks to a captive breeding programme started by Sheikh Zayed and continued by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD).

In 1982, the first houbara bustard chick was hatched in captivity as part of a breeding and release programme that saw 26,433 of the previously endangered birds freed in 2017 on behalf of the International Houbara Conservation Fund.

The sand cat, falcon, Arabian tahr and countless other species have also seen similar efforts to safeguard their wellbeing in a sometimes inhospitable climate.

Hawksbill turtles have nested on the shores of Saadiyat Island and flamingoes descend annually on Al Wathba reserve to breed safely, away from predators.

Conservation is now not just a philanthropic effort, it’s mandate. To date, the UAE has signed nearly 20 international and regional conventions to protect species and biodiverse environments.

Saving the world

As one of the first countries to sign the global Paris Agreement, the UAE is dedicated to being an active player in changing what tomorrow’s world might look like.

Part of that charge is led by the Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZCF). Since its inception in 2009, the philanthropic organisation has provided more than AED 64.2 million in small grants to 1,801 conservation projects worldwide, protecting countless species of flora and fauna.

“On a global level we feel that we have an important role to play,” begins Nicolas Heard, head of the organisation’s fund management.

“An awful lot of the globally endangered species are hugely understudied and relatively unknown in terms of population sizes and how threatened they are.”

Tomorrow’s world

So how can the UAE continue its conservation legacy for future generations?

For Laila Mostafa Abdullatif, director general of Emirates Wildlife Society – WWF, the future remains in the balance: “It is now time to look at the challenges we’re facing globally and not only locally or regionally.”

But young people can be the catalyst for change: “Governments can benefit from the power of young people to lead a global transformation towards sustainability.”

WORDS Camille Hogg