Living Land

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Environmental education and awareness

programmes in the United Arab Emirates

Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson, Emirates Environmental Group

he United Arab Emirates (UAE) is situated in the

arid west continent desert belt of the south-east

region of the Arabian Peninsula in South-West

Asia.

Its environmental conditions are highly sensitive

due to the delicate balance between various factors of an

arid ecosystem such as water, soil, climate, vegetation,

natural resources and biodiversity.

To add to this, UAE

has a population close to 9 million.

In order to sustain

such a large population in a desert environment, large

amounts of energy, water and land are required. Ever

since the discovery of oil, UAE has invested in large-scale

developments and has attracted many investors, which

is one of the main reasons for its rising population. To

satisfy the needs of the increasing resident population and

tourists, millions of Dirhams have been invested in build-

ing houses, power plants, desalination plants, shopping

malls, recreational facilities and so on. This has led to

the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases, loss and

degradation of land and an exponential increase in the

amount of CO

emissions among others.

While there are many environmental challenges to over-

come, some of the most important issues facing UAE today

are desertification and land degradation and the basic lack

of fresh natural water sources which is compensated for by

desalinated water which comes at great costs. According to

MICAD (2015), “Desertification includes land degradation

in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from

various factors, including climatic variations and human

activities.” The United Nations Environment Programme

(UNEP)

states that about 6 million hectares are irretriev-

ably lost or degraded by desertification each year and about

135 million people are severely affected by this process. This

will invariably result in less productive land and in turn will

lead to poverty and unsustainable development.

To further highlight the importance of this issue the

United Nations started the United Nations Convention to

Combat Desertification in 1994 and declared 17 June as the

World day to Combat Desertification. While this has alerted

the world’s governments to the importance of combating

desertification, it is essential to inform and involve the

For Our Emirates — We Plant is a unique campaign that combines waste recycling with tree planting initiatives

Images: EEG

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