Worldwide Fund for Nature UAE

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January 2001


It was the winter of 1995 and we were working with village communities residing around the famed Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur, Rajasthan state, India) – a 29 sq km, enchanting waterfowl refuge where some 350 bird species congregate. It has an exalted status - National Park, World Heritage Site, and wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Rural communities living around the Park have, however, not been happy about the state of affairs. In years gone by, they would graze their buffaloes inside. This was important for them because they were a pastoral economy dependent on milk sales for their livelihood.

When Keoladeo became a National Park all grazing inside was banned. This move sparked violence that simmered down to a state of deep resentment among people because they had received no compensation for being deprived of grazing grounds. Besides, they believed that grazing was actually beneficial for the Park. So, as part of a World Wide Fund for Nature team, we were talking to villagers about how they felt their losses could be made up.

A particular villager had an interesting solution. Buffaloes should receive a pension. They had kept excessive vegetative growth in check and reduced fire hazards. Buffalo dung attracted insects, which served as food for birds. And more birds visited the park in the days that buffaloes grazed inside. “Just as working people get their retirement benefits, our buffaloes that served the park through all those decades should be given buffalo pension!”

Enter: Panda.org

Think about conservation of rhinos in Asia, elephants in Africa, whales in all the oceans and, in particular, about India’s tigers and China’s giant pandas. One organisation must surely come to mind - World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The world’s largest international non-governmental conservation organisation, its celebrated panda logo has come to symbolise a determination to stem the tide of environmental destruction brought about by humanity. ‘Operation Tiger’, ‘Giant Panda Action Plan’, campaigns on climate change, endangered seas, forests, toxic chemicals use….these are just some activities through which WWF is attempting to lighten man’s enormous burden on nature.

Very soon, the UAE environment will directly benefit from the organisation’s considerable global conservation experience. WWF is coming to town. In the first week of February 2001, WWF will open its UAE project office, the first international conservation non-governmental organisation (NGO) to do so in the UAE and the first WWF office to open in the Middle East. To start with, the office will be located in the premises of Abu Dhabi-based Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA) which is facilitating the international NGO’s entry into the country. From this base, WWF plans to address environmental issues in the UAE through collaborative projects with existing local agencies, both governmental and non-governmental.

For the last 40 years the WWF family worldwide has been working towards preserving our planet’s biological diversity (virtually, life on earth) and, in keeping with it’s mission, helping build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Pursuing the mission, it has launched and implemented more than 12,000 conservation projects in 153 countries on all six continents, investing some $ 360 million annually on these. Based in Gland, Switzerland, the WWF International Secretariat leads and provides services to a network of WWF offices in various parts of the globe.

Its conservation work is impressive. From lobbying for the highly effective 1989 ban on ivory trade to discovering new species – e.g. giant muntjac deer in Vietnam, one of only seven large land mammals discovered this century; from creating the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (all around Antarctica) to recreating natural river floodplains in the Netherlands; from training Bhutanese forest staff in protected area management to working with local communities in Madagascar on saving their island’s unique ecosystems…..WWF has taken up a vast number and variety of environmental challenges.


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In “debt-for-nature” swaps it buys foreign currency debts of countries, converts these into local currency, and uses the proceeds to fund conservation projects in debtor nations (Madagascar, Philippines, Poland, Bolivia, Costa Rica…..). By working with religious groups, it recognises that the world’s faiths offer profound insights, teachings and practices on caring for nature (result: a global Alliance of Religions and Conservation).

By forging partnerships with business and industry, it tries to influence company philosophy in favour of the environment (outcomes: energy efficient houses in the Netherlands in collaboration with some of the country’s largest construction companies; a vital database in the Antarctic with British Petroleum; a national education programme on endangered species in Canada with Canada Life Assurance Company…..). And through TRAFFIC (Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce), it contributes to the world’s largest wildlife trade monitoring programme.


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To fully illustrate WWF’s accomplishments would require many volumes. They cover a diversity of conservation programmes, projects, and approaches; but all follow a carefully developed plan.

Concentration is on the protection of forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts (these together cover a major part of the earth’s surface and account for a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity); and further,

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a focus on scientifically selected 200 eco-regions in the world. WWF adopts strategies such as establishing protected areas, promoting sustainable development, conserving species, reducing consumption and pollution, treaties and national legislation, awareness raising, and training. It uses an appropriate mix of fieldwork, policy work and education. And teams up on projects with governments, NGOs, businesses, industries, conservation leaders, the public and even individual landowners.

The tasks at hand are stupendous. How much of the planet’s biodiversity can WWF hope to preserve? Said Sir Peter Scott (1909 – 1989), WWF founder and its first chairman, “We shan’t save all we should like to, but we shall save a great deal more than if we had never tried.”

About WWF’s entry into the UAE, Eathsense spoke to Dr. Frederic Launay, acting director, WWF UAE Project Office.

On why WWF chose to set up an office in the UAE
It was a combination of factors. Today, unlike earlier, WWF’s conservation strategy focuses on important eco-regions of the world (200 eco-regions have been scientifically selected to represent the greatest amount of biodiversity, or individual uniqueness). Two of these are the Arabian Gulf, and Arabian islands and shrublands. That is why WWF International thought it important to set up a conservation programme to cover these two eco-regions. They also considered other factors – logistical support, openness, potential to address conservation issues. The UAE was identified as the country with potential for having the greatest impact on conservation of these eco-regions, especially the Arabian Gulf.

On the official opening

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This will be in the first week of February, coinciding with the Environment 2001 Conference (4 – 7 February, Abu Dhabi) at which WWF will be represented. We thought it was a good opportunity to link the two events and make it an environmental week for the UAE. The opening in Abu Dhabi will be centred on the institutional support offered to WWF from governmental and non-governmental agencies - different organisations working on environment in the UAE who will be invited to participate in the conservation programmes that WWF would like to put in place through them.

An event in Dubai, a few days later, will be more directed towards WWF corporate supporters and business partners.

On the relationship between WWF and ERWDA
ERWDA and WWF International signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year under which ERWDA will provide assistance in the establishment of WWF, as an international NGO, with a full-fledged office in the UAE to address conservation and environment issues of mutual interest in the country. Because both organisations have the same concerns and the same set of general priorities, it was appropriate to have the two working in partnership. The main priorities are the marine environment (Arabian Gulf), protected areas, species of special concern, education and awareness. Within this framework, ERWDA is providing all the official support in terms of legal presence of WWF in the country, sponsorship, and logistics – office space, secretarial assistance and other help.

On the conservation programme
WWF is not here to establish its own programme or its own projects. The different priorities will be addressed by collaborative projects through existing local agencies, either governmental or non-governmental. So it will act through the existing network and then, using the traditional methods of WWF, help in such projects as drafting management plans for protected areas and species; and providing the know how and experience of the entire WWF network to look at various issues.

Since the intention is to work through existing organisations and agencies, local partners have to be identified, some of which are already known. WWF will be trying to establish these links not only on a general level but also on a project-based level. Funds will be raised locally for local projects, and these will be redirected to the partners identified.

WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO?

Save energy. Every time we heat water we shouldn’t top up the kettle, but put in only as much water as we need.

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