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UAE only Arab country to sign agreement on dugongs conservation

ABU DHABI — The first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the conservation and management of dugongs was signed yesterday in the capital. The UAE was the only Arab country to sign the MoU, along with Australia, France, Tanzania, Eritrea, Madagascar, Burma and Iran, although 37 other nations, including Gulf countries, pledged to sign at a later date.

Prior to the memorandum, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) organised a two-day workshop here concerning the dugong conservation and management plan in East Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, as well as the West Indian Ocean sub-regions.

The main objectives of the agreement, which was signed on behalf of the UAE by Mohammed Kindi, Minister of Environment and Water, are to protect the dugongs and their habitats, to raise awareness about the species, to research and monitor the dugong populations and to cooperate at international level, in order to maintain or restore the conservation of these marine animals and their habitats.

The dugong is a marine mammal, an average adult reaching 2.7 metres in length and up to 300 kg in weight. It is the only the strictly marine herbivorous mammal, feeding on seagrass near the coastal line, which make it highly vulnerable to human development and hunting. The dugong has been hunted for thousands of years, often for its meat and oil. Apart from hunting, poaching and destroying of its habitat led to its extinction in many countries, while in others it now an endangered species.

According to Thabit Zahran Al Abdessalaam, director of Marine Environment Research Centre at EAD, in Australia, which has the largest population of dugongs and the UAE, with the second largest population, the dugong only has a threatened status.

“In Abu Dhabi, dugong hunting has been banned since 1999. Furthermore, Marwah, which contains 65 per cent of the dugong population here, has been declared a protected area since 2001 and now we are planning an integrated coastal zone protection”, Abdessalaam told Khaleej Times.

Majid Al Mansouri, secretary general of EAD, also pointed out that the UAE government has taken several steps towards the protection of this animal and conservation of its habitats. “Dugongs, which have been the subject of detailed research and monitoring for almost eight years by the Environment Agency are accorded full protection under the law”, said Al Mansouri.