UAE | Environment

UAE to sign pact to protect birds of prey

The UAE Minister of Environment and Water announced on Monday at the opening of the three-day meeting to Conclude an Agreement on Birds Of Prey, that UAE will ink the agreement in a bid to help conserve migratory birds of prey.

  • By Rayeesa Absal, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:55 October 21, 2008
  • Gulf News

Abu Dhabi: The UAE Minister of Environment and Water announced on Monday at the opening of the three-day meeting to Conclude an Agreement on Birds Of Prey, that UAE will ink the agreement in a bid to help conserve migratory birds of prey.

With the participation of over 45 countries, the agreement aims to protect more than 70 species of migratory birds of prey in Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

Delivering the inaugural speech, Dr Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahd, the Minister of Environment and Water, said: "UAE will be signing this agreement and will also host the Secretariat and make available necessary funding to run the Secretariat here in Abu Dhabi."

Representatives of nations are now in the process of brainstorming to iron out their differences to create a draft Memorandum of Understanding and a detailed action plan that will follow the memorandum.

"Adoption and signing of the agreement will be an important milestone in our journey to save migratory birds of prey and the necessary first step leading to the implementation of the action plan", the minister remarked.

Explaining the need for conserving these migratory birds, he said: "Birds of prey, being at the top of the food chain, are exposed to threats from changing land use practices impacting food availability, pollution and lack of suitable breeding areas.

Moreover, long distance migrants are particularly vulnerable to additional pressures of hunting, collision with power lines and lack of suitable stopover sites, as they stop to refuel along their migration paths."

Calling for urgent and affirmative action, he added that this is necessary not only to safeguard these globally threatened birds of prey but also to improve the conservation status of many other migratory birds of prey, which are not listed as threatened at the moment but have poor conservation status.

The meeting is being organised by Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD), in coordination with the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and UK's Department of Food and Agriculture.

Dr Salim Javed, Deputy Manager of Bird Conservation at EAD, said that the aim is to conserve the species which fall in the priority category like the saker falcon, sooty falcon etc. "In UAE, among 442 species of birds there are 46 birds of prey species. Of the 442 species, 15 fall under the globally threatened category."

"The signing of the MoU is just the beginning. It is a great stride forward on conservation," he added.

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