Environment protection is a 'key issue for UAE'

Dubai: Environment protection is the key issue in the UAE's policies for sustainable development, said Hamad Abdul Rahman Al Midfa, Minister of Health.

He said the UAE has focussed on environment protection while implementing its comprehensive development plans. "It has realised long ago the important relation between environment and development, and it kept pace with international efforts to protect environment to achieve sustainable development," said Al Midfa while speaking at the opening session of the 9th Special Session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum which began at Dubai International World Trade Centre yesterday.

New developments

The UNEP Forum is being attended by 120 environment ministers, their technical advisors and international and regional organisations working on environmental issues.

During the three-day forum, they will discuss new developments in policies that govern UNEP work and approve, on behalf of their governments, any new agreements or strategies that have been negotiated in the preparatory meetings. Three main issues energy and environment, tourism and environment and chemicals management will be the focus of discussions.

Al Midfa went on to saying that these issues gained special attention over the past few years due to their close relations with sustainable development. "The UAE made many achievements in these three areas during the recent years."

Shaikh Zayed's work praised

The efforts of Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan to preserve the environment have been singled out for praise by a major global environmental report.

There is a special feature on Shaikh Zayed's work to plant trees and conserve endangered species in the United Nations Environment Programme's GEO Year Book 2006.

Shaikh Zayed was posthumously awarded the UNEP's Champions of the Earth Award in April 2005 for his work.

Describing Shaikh Zayed as a "Champion of the Earth", the report highlights the fact that the UAE's founding President oversaw the planting of more than 150 million trees in the UAE.