Arabian oryx an index to health of environment

Reintroduction of extinct oryx by breeding programme a miracle, official says

Abu Dhabi: “The Arabian oryx is not only a symbol of cultural heritage but it also helps the quality of our natural environment that immediately affects the lives of human beings,” a senior official told a leading daily.

Being a large herbivorous animal, the Arabian oryx indicates the health of the environment and the animal’s extinction in the past was an alarm bell on the state of the ecosystem, Dr Majid Al Qasimi, Director of Terrestrial Biodiversity Division at the Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD), said on the sidelines of an event.

Dr Shaikha Al Daheri, Executive Director of the Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector at the EAD, said Arab nations worked a miracle by breeding Arabian oryx and reintroduced them in some countries in the region.

“We achieved an outstanding success in 2011 when IUCN [the International Union for Conservation of Nature] reclassified the Arabian oryx as ‘Vulnerable’ after it had been listed as Extinct in the Wild,” she said in her opening speech at the fifth meeting of members of the Coordination Committee for the Conservation of the Arabian Oryx (CCCAO).

The meeting in Abu Dhabi hosted by the EAD discussed measures to enhance regional coordination and communication to conserve the Arabian oryx in its natural habitats.

The committee, which is chaired by the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD), comprises a number of member Arab governments, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, and Yemen, which have committed to unifying and intensifying efforts to conserve the Arabian oryx, which once roamed freely across an area stretching from the south of Syria to the Omani and Yemeni borders with Saudi Arabia.

Dr Shaikha said the range states with mutual cooperation and in coordination with international environmental organisations succeeded in breeding the Arabian oryx, bringing it back from the verge of extinction, and reintroducing it in suitable habitats in the region

The one-day meeting also reviewed the results of the 2013 Arabian oryx disease survey following responses received on veterinary aspects of oryx collections from 25 collections (covering 54 sites) across the member states with a total of 9,706 oryx in all surveyed collections.

Among other key highlights of this year’s meeting was the National Reporting Template for member states, which was developed to gather information annually from all member states on their local initiatives, assessing progress in the implementation of the conservation strategy, and enhancing communication and information sharing.