If you have ever visited a wadi in the UAE and enjoyed its beauty and the diversity of its flora and fauna, you would agree that despoiling its pristine and invaluable environs is a travesty that ought to come with punitive measures. Human misdemeanours — such as introducing a shark fish into pristine waters for the fun of it or spoiling rock faces with graffiti — are making the job of conservation experts more difficult. UAE’s wadis are at the heart of its precious ecosystem and their health is indicative of the larger ecological health of the country.
Any kind of damage inflicted on them, whether by individuals or due to the larger issue of the urban sprawl that puts pressure on wadis, leads to negative consequences. For example, Wadi Wurayah National Park, one of the most famous wadis in the UAE, had to be closed to the public in 2013 due to public transgressions. This is an indictment of the human inability to respect nature and a warning to people to amend their behaviour when interacting with their surroundings.
