A national effort to save the UAE desert's most precious indigenous evergreen tree from destruction is making headway, say campaign organisers.
The World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) push to have the ghaf tree declared as the country's national tree by government leaders has received the backing of thousands of petitioners, says Rashmi De Roy, WWF education manager in Dubai.
To date, 2,633 people have signed the petition to save the endangered shade tree known as the umbrella tree.
For untold centuries, the tree has been the touchstone of the Bedouin tribal society providing fuel for fires, shelter, medicine and food.
“We're expecting to present the Ministry of Environment and Water with the petition in September,'' said De Roy. “The more votes we have, the stronger our lobby efforts will be.''
The WWF will also plant 100 live ghaf saplings in the desert near Abu Dhabi to recognise the 1,000 virtual garden plantings by supporters online.
“We are planting them in a protected area so that they can be looked after in their initial stages,'' De Roy said. “These saplings will be well looked after.''
Every step to highlight the plight of the ghaf tree cannot be underestimated, said De Roy.
After surviving thousands of years in one of the harshest climates on earth, which can see temperatures climb to more than 50 degrees, ghaf trees are disappearing from the UAE's landscape due to human pressures upon the environment, she said.
Development, over-consumption of groundwater aquifers, overgrazing by livestock, stripping branches for firewood and an increase in global temperatures in the desert are placing the ghaf in peril, studies show. Ironically, the tree is already protected by law thanks to regulations prohibiting cutting one down. Trees are removed and replanted.
“It is illegal to cut down a ghaf tree,'' said De Roy. “You must get permission to uproot it and transplant it somewhere else.''
But with groundwater being sucked out of the country's deep underground pools for thirsty humans, the trees are under threat of dying of thirst.
De Roy said the trees have survived for so long because of their extraordinary tap root system which can burrow through the soil for up to 30 metres to find permanent underground water pools. When those pools, however, are tapped out, the trees die.
The effects upon animals that depend on the tree's life-giving shelter are immediate, say environmentalists.
A larger official plan to save the ghaf tree has been under way by the WWF's UAE project office since January 1, 2006, headed by spokesman Frederic Launay. The plan is attempting to create a protected area.
The plan also proposes that a team of “local conservation rangers'' be formed to patrol and save the trees.
Making the ghaf the country's official tree would bring even more protection and could curb its decline, De Roy said.
2,633 The number of people who have signed the petition to save the endangered shade tree known as the umbrella tree.
Umbrella of life
- The ghaf tree has been likened to an umbrella for its unrivalled ability to provide shade.
- The ghaf tree is found in many other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
- The tree is known by many names in Arabic including haddeb as a sapling, nashwa as a young tree and ghaf when it is large and adult.
- The Emiratis' love for the ghaf tree is evidenced in the naming of children after it with names such as Gafan, Gafa, and Bu Hadoub.
- A ghaf grove is referred to in Arabic as oud meaning sticks, a word that signified dense groves of the trees such as in Oud Metha and Oud Almatina in Dubai.
SOURCE: www.savetheghaftree.org
Have your say
To cast a vote, log on to the WWF campaign site
www.savetheghaftree.org
