For the Arabs of the UAE, the desert, mountains and seas have
long provided raw materials for building homes or constructing
sailing craft, as well as a sustainable source of food on which
they have depended for their very survival. Given the relative
sparcity of life in the desert, and the unpredictability of life-giving
rain, it is hardly surprising that conservation has been at the
very core of man’s existence in this part of Arabia. Add to this
the fact that Islam calls upon its followers to treat all creatures
with deep respect, and you may begin to appreciate why wildlife,
the environment and conservation are given such a high priority
in a land where the rapid pace of development brings potential
conflicts between man and nature into sharp focus.
When the British explorer Wilfred Thesiger was completing his own
epic journey across the Empty Quarter in the early 1950s, as he
so vividly describes in his book Arabian Sands, he went to stay
with Sheikh Zayed, who lived at that time in the Al-Ain/Buraimi
oasis. His first meeting with the man who was to become ruler
of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates took place
in humble, natural surroundings. Zayed was sitting on the ground
under an acacia tree outside the fort. Thesiger recalls: ‘He was
a powerfully built man of about thirty with a brown beard. He
had a strong intelligent face, with steady, observant eyes and
his manner was quiet but masterful……He wore a dagger and a
cartridge belt; his rifle lay on the sand beside him.’ Thesiger
commented that the locals held Zayed in great respect for he was
a true bedouin with all the local knowledge of the desert and
wildlife that the word implied.
Thesiger and his colleagues spent a month as Zayed’s guest and
during the visit they went hunting together with falcons. On one
occasion a falcon took off across the sand-hills and was eventually
discovered by Zayed and Thesiger who were on camel-back. After
recovering the bird Zayed pointed to some oily splashes on the
ground, explaining to Thesiger that the houbara bustard squirts
this secretion at an attacking falcon, temporarily blinding the
predator. Thesiger goes on to describe encounter after encounter
in which Zayed quietly imparted his understanding of nature and
his love of wildlife. The experience made a powerful impression
on the British explorer and is beautifully recounted in his classic
book.
In this year of triple celebrations for the UAE – 25 years of
federation; 25 years of Sheikh Zayed’s Presidency and 30 years
of his rule over the emirate of Abu Dhabi, there has been great
interest in retrospective analysis of what the last quarter century
has meant for the seven emirates that comprise the UAE. It is
clear from such analysis that its people have benefited significantly
from the efforts of a government committed to social development
and improvement of facilities in virtually every aspect of their
lives. However, one could easily argue that, given the country’s
vast oil wealth, it would have been inconceivable that this would
not be the case. The fact that this development has taken place
in an atmosphere of respect for its cultural heritage, and with
a committed acknowledgement of the need to conserve its natural
world, is perhaps more impressive than the infrastructural and
socio-economic strides which have transformed the nation.
The challenge of maintaining a balance between man and the environment
has been central to Sheikh Zayed’s entire period of stewardship.
His conviction that the deserts can be turned green again, as
they once were before climate changed to one of the driest on
the globe, has led him to support a massive campaign of afforestation
and irrigation, utilizing waste water from urban and industrial
developments to make grass, crops and trees grow in place of shifting
sands. The results of this sustained endeavour are particularly
apparent as one flies into the UAE, hardly failing to observe
from the air that vast tracts of previously arid desert are now
forested – more than 130 million trees having been planted during
the past 25 years. On the ground, as one drives from airport to
city centre, the solid greenery of tree-lined freeways reinforces
an impression of lush tropical vegetation rather than arid desert,
and even in the urban heartlands of Abu Dhabi and Dubai one can
hardly fail to be impressed by the carefully cultivated parklands
which have become a magnet for migrating birds and other native
wildlife.
But what of the natural Emirates, that land beyond city and highway,
far from the sight of high-rise buildings and the noise of vehicles?
Is there anything left of the Arabia that once existed, before
oil was discovered and before Zayed and his people decided to
build a modern, developed country? Can it be true that leopards
still live among the mountains, or that the Arabian tahr, until
recently thought to be extinct in the UAE, still survives in isolated
‘hidden’ valleys, or indeed that the elusive sea-cow or dugong
still swims among its sheltered offshore islands? Just how successful
has this Arabian country been at balancing the demands of man
against those of wildlife?
Natural Emirates, published by Trident Press as part of the UAE’s
Silver Jubilee celebrations, addresses such questions directly
in a series of well informed, beautifully illustrated chapters
on the UAE’s wildlife, written by experts in their individual
fields. You will be relieved to read that leopards do indeed still
live in the UAE, in larger numbers than were previously estimated,
but still not sufficient to ensure their future survival. Protection
of the leopard has provided a rallying call for a grass-roots
conservation programme spearheaded by the Arabian Leopard Trust
which has established a captive breeding pair of leopards in the
UAE and is working towards creation of a reserve for their protection
in the wild.
After a carcass of a tahr was found near a water pool on Jebel
Hafit in 1982, it was generally thought that the tahr was extinct
outside of Oman. That remained the view until a 1995 survey of
possible leopard habitats undertaken by Chris and Tilde Stuart,
and organized by the Arabian Leopard Trust. The Stuarts are knowledgeable
trackers and naturalists who have honed their skills over many
years of fieldwork in Africa, Arabia and in other regions. Whilst
clambering along a ledge in the Shimailiyyah mountains of the
UAE their attention was drawn by the sound of a falling pebble
on the opposite side of the ravine. Not only did they catch sight
of an adult and young tahr, but they also took the first ever
photographs of live tahr in the Emirates. Seen against the dark
purplish rocks, the tahr were almost invisible. Reproduced in
Natural Emirates, this picture seems to speak out from the page.
The adult tahr, facing the camera, appeals to us all to respect
the wilderness in which it still survives.
Dugongs have been hunted in this region for thousands of years,
as evidenced by the presence of their skeletal remains in ancient
middens and at burial sites. Dugongs in the UAE mostly inhabit
the shallow waters around the islands of Murawah and Bu Tina to
the west of Abu Dhabi, but their range extends further west to
the border of Qatar and beyond, and there are still occasional
sightings to the east around Jebel Ali, Umm al-Qaiwain and Ras
al-Khaimah. The UAE’s rich and extensive seagrass beds are vital
to the continued survival of this sea-mammal in the Gulf region.
Natural Emirates not only provides us with data on the survival
of dugongs in the UAE but also backs it up with some rare photographs
of them taken during a marine survey of Abu Dhabi’s offshore waters.
As one turns the pages of Natural Emirates it is hard to be unimpressed
by the sheer variety of wildlife that the country supports. Despite
the demands of industrial and infrastructural development, habitats
have been preserved and nature has been respected to a far greater
extent than one finds in many other countries. Whilst the mangrove
has often been regarded as an annoying encumberance, fair game
for removal or infilling of its shallow habitat, in the Emirates
large areas of mangrove have not only been preserved but fresh
stands are constantly being planted, creating new habitats for
marine life and for many birds and other animals. Meanwhile, the
UAE’s oldest mangroves, at Khor Kalba on the east coast, remain
home of the endemic sub-species of white-collared kingfisher (Halcyon
chloris kalbaensis,) one of the rarest birds in the world.
Whilst no single book can cover the entire subject of the UAE’s
natural world, Natural Emirates makes a bold attempt to present
a balanced picture of what is to be found there, offering as much
information on insects and reptiles, for example as for the more
popular birds and mammals. Chapters on geology and palaeontology
are refreshingly written for the general reader whilst retaining
their scientific accuracy and the chapter on plantlife is compiled
more with a view to encouraging the amateur naturalist to explore
the wonders of local flora than to provide a blow by blow taxonomic
account of individual species.
Above all however, this book is a visual celebration of a segment
of Arabia’s natural world that has received relatively little
media attention in the past, but which clearly merits a much greater
focus in future. Award winning photographers, Jens and Hanne Eriksen
were especially commissioned to photograph for the book. In addition
many of the authors have contributed their own unique UAE wildlife
photographs, covering subjects as diverse as snakes shedding their
skin to sperm whales breaching, and you have a book that will
not only impress its readers but which will play a positive role
in supporting the conservation of the UAE’s natural world for
future generations to experience and enjoy.