His Excellency Dr. Rashid Ahmed Mohammed Bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water (MoEW), chaired the 8th meeting of the National Committee for the Environmental Coordination, which was held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. The committee members from different environmental authorities and heads of the National Committee for the Environmental Coordination attended the meeting.
In his welcome remarks, H.E. Bin Fahad revealed the initiative of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that aims to declare January 4 as Sitting Memorial Day to show appreciation to H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, Ruler of Abu Dhabi and his triumphant journey as the country’s top leader. The minister said “that this inimitable leadership has a big role in making the UAE people the happiest people in the world [for providing] comfortable way of living for all citizens and residents staying on its generous territories.”
He also stressed the importance of the National Committee for Environmental Coordination involving various local authorities. The committee enhances the role and the efficiency of all federal agencies and local communities to attain progress and development in various environmental fields.
The agenda of the meeting covered various issues, one of which was about the country’s natural reserves. The Prime Minister’s office discussed the natural reserves’ national indicator, or ratio of natural reserves to the total area of the country, for 2014-2016. It also tackled international conventions on natural reserves, the current status of UAE’s natural reserves, and the importance of announcing new natural reserves in the state.
During the meeting, the participants also highlighted the importance of vegetation cover protection and discussed the implementation of Federal Law No. 24 of 1999 and its implementing regulations. They raised the alarm on reckless cutting and selling of timbers as well, a practice that damages and degrades vegetation, particularly perennial plants such as hills, Ghaf and Sidra in some wild areas.
Moreover, the meeting tackled the red list of plant species in the UAE and the importance of record keeping to monitor the country’s status of the plants. The participants also took a closer look on the classification of rare species using the red list assessment system of The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and reviewed the final list of the plant species.
Other topics discussed during the meeting were UAE’s position in the international environmental indicators in accordance with the international reports and the progress achieved by UAE in terms of environment protection between 2010 and 2012. Concerned authorities projected that UAE would achieve further progress this 2014 to join the ranks of the world’s developed countries. A recommendation to enhance all efforts to raise the country’s competitiveness in all industries, especially in the environment sector, was made.
The attendees also agreed that a regular environment report is essential, and that the full cooperation among concerned parties and authorities is needed to produce this report.
The MoEW maintained that it is keeping abreast of environmental developments in the world. In order to achieve this, the ministry seeks to enhance its cooperation and get involved in joint actions with concerned national and global organizations and agencies. This cooperation covers various fields such as protecting the environment, supporting ‘green’ growth, mitigating the effects of climate change, and strict managing of chemical substances.
In line with this, the ministry has signed many memorandums of understandings (MOUs) with national and international bodies. For example, it signed MOUs with a technical research team in Finland in 2013; the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association in 2013; Republic of Korea with regard to environment protection in 2009; Swiss Confederation regarding cooperation in the environment and energy fields in 2009; and Kuwait with regard to technical cooperation in the field of environment protection and preservation in 2008.
The participants recommended the implementation of action plans, with a defined timetable, in relation to these MOUs and one record for all MOUs (Twinning agreements) to ensure that all relevant bodies are benefitting from them.
The meeting was capped off with MoEW’s presentation of its 2014-2016 strategy, vision and mission, and core values as well as its main strategic themes, objectives and indicators.