Abu Dhabi habitat database to tag 16m trees

Abu Dhabi: Sixteen million trees in forest areas managed by the Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD) will have their exact details entered in a database, senior officials told Gulf News.

“The project aims to identify the health status and type of species of trees,” said Ahmad Baharoon, Executive Director, Environmental Information, Science and Outreach Management at EAD.

The Habitat Mapping project documents all fauna and flora across the emirate with the help of state-of-the art satellite mapping technologies, he said. “About four million trees have already been given individual IDs on the database and the project is progressing now.”

The millions of trees in Abu Dhabi emirate are the legacy of Shaikh Zayed, the founding father of the UAE, and the initiative is part of various efforts to protect them, the official said. He was referring to Shaikh Zayed’s environmental vision to increase the green cover in the country in the 1970s and 1980s when green issues were not a priority for most countries.

The database in general and individual identity of trees in particular will help identify the healthy trees when Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) studies are done for various projects, said Anil Kumar, Director of Environment Information Management at EAD.

Extra care could be taken to spare healthy trees when implementing developmental projects if accurate data is available to authorities, he said.

Apart from 16 million trees managed by the EAD, several millions more in other forests are managed by the municipality and other entities in the emirate and the protection of some of these forests too could eventually rest with the EAD, the official said.