Meet on Arabian Oryx tomorrow

The UAE, which was selected earlier to be the venue of the General Secretariat of the co-ordinating committee for the conservation of the Arabian Oryx, will host the committee's first meeting in Abu Dhabi which is scheduled to be held tomorrow at Hilton Hotel.

The meeting, which will be chaired by Managing Director of the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA) Mohammed Al Bo-wardi will discuss the committee's articles of association and the Arabian Oryx fund by-laws. The Arabian Oryx strategy and work plan will be also discussed in addition to the Executive Secretariat budget for the year 2002.

The committee, which consists of representatives from UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan, was formed according to the recommendations made by the International Conference on the Arabian Oryx held in Abu Dhabi in March 1999.

The conference recommended that a coordinating body with a permanent secretariat should be created in one of the range states to enhance cooperation and experience exchange across the Arabian Peninsula. The tightening of regulations and better regional cooperation to prevent illegal trans-boundary movement of, and trade in, Arabian Oryx were also called for.

The committee's founding meeting held in Muscat, Oman, in January 2000, has underscored the importance of establishing the General Secretariat and a fund to finance the Arabian Oryx. The secretariat general is to follow up decisions and recommendations made by the coordinating committee.

It also has to prepare for its meeting, submit recommended agenda and manage an information data base systems on the Arabian Oryx with a network covering concerned establishments and individuals. It is also responsible for following up, implementing and achieving the objects for which the committee has been formed.

In that meeting, UAE was named as General Secretariat of Arabian Oryx. The selection came as an appreciation to the efforts by President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in protecting the environment and conserving wildlife within the UAE and abroad and especially Arabian Oryx.

The Arabian Oryx got Sheikh Zayed's attention as an endangered species and as part of the Arabian Peninsula's heritage. In the early 1960s, Sheikh Zayed, noticing the rapidly diminishing numbers of Arabian Oryx, arranged for the capture of some of the remaining wild animals so that the nucleus of a captive breeding programme could be established.

Large tracts of privately-owned land were set aside for wildlife protection while, from 1977 in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and 1981 federally, hunting was banned. This particular and successful effort has meant that today the UAE's captive population of the Oryx represents a significant proportion of the world total for the species.

It is worthwhile to note that uncontrolled hunting and capture were the major reasons the Oryx originally became extinct in the wild by 1972. The animals were hunted for their horns, hide and meat.