Oman marks Earth Day with plea to 'guard it jealously'

The Sultanate of Oman, known for its commitment to the environment, yesterday celebrated Earth Day. A team of experts from the Ministry of the Environment visited the American International School and told pupils: "We living beings share the same planet. Let us protect it jealously. And the best way to do it is to conserve nature." Their message was part of an environmental awareness programme.

A biodiversity expert told Gulf News that more such visits would be undertaken to other schools." We must inject environmental discipline among children from Day One." He said Oman had joined the International Convention on Biodeversity last year and had since prepared a national strategy which it was in the process of carrying out. "We are promoting environmental sicences as best as possible."

The day was marked against the backdrop of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which was adressed by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos on behalf the Arab leaders, highlighting the grave threats to the atmosphere and the rivers and seas, forests and certain seas and the soil.
"Should this continue,humanity will court collective suicide," the Omani leader warned.

The expert said nowhere in the world could a government on its own conserve nature. "It has to be a collective concerted effort by the people at large. And this is what we are doing through our mass awareness campaign."

He said Earth Day had extra significance for Oman, because 2001 was the Year of the Enviroment in the Sultnate. He said there was a series of activities countrywide to combat pollution, especially with regard to the sea. A massive nationwide 'Coral Reef Clean-up Operation' is being launched from June 15.

The day was observed close on the heels of the GCC environment ministers' meeting in Muscat which took a number of important decisions to evolve a collective plan to protect the environment. Thirty professors and students from an Irish university have arrived here to undertake a geological survey of different regions of Oman in cooperation with Sultan Qaboos University.