The rich and diverse natural inventory of wildlife of the UAE is alive and well and counts more than 500 well-known species on land , in the air, and in the sea. To keep that richness alive for future generations, a sense of awareness about the diversity needs to passed along to the next generation to ensure it's survival.

Emirates Environmental Marine Group (EMEG) truly believes that instilling a sense of environmental stewardship for the natural flora and fauna of the UAE begins with educating children. Younger generations are the future and will some day ensure that every wild species living in the country is ensured equal protection in a country filled with animals in the air, on the land and in the sea. To that end , EMEG officials have produced a special digital encyclopaedia  project cataloguing the rich natural heritage across the UAE and in it's 25 square-kilometre nature preserve on the southwest border of Dubai.

Most residents especially children have no idea there is such a diversity of animals living along the Dubai coast. A lot of children who join EMEG's research and protection programmes  think that the desert here in Dubai is empty and that it has no wildlife. That's why to wash this myth off , EMEG did this encyclopaedia to enable every school child to see just how many natural animals are living here with us .

To promote appreciation among students of biological diversity of Dubai , every student involved with the group is given a copy of EMEG's  "Interactive Wildlife and Habitat CD". The project identifies more than 500 species of resident flora and fauna.

What remains of the fragile desert and marine environments in the UAE needs protection from both commercial development and from destruction by an ignorant or uncaring public. The federal and emirate governments are well placed to control commercial destruction of native habitats as they balance the need for economic development with preservation of a vanishing national asset.

But stopping the public abuse of nature is a totally different matter as it cannot be managed by a top-down legal structure, but requires every person in this country to understand their own destructive capacity and to appreciate what we have. This needs a continuous awareness programme to stop acts such as littering, camping in the wrong place and accepting disturbances in the wild, which might all seem to be small things in themselves but add up to an overwhelming assault on the country's diminishing natural reserves. Public awareness is key to caring for our environment.

This is why the new digital encyclopaedia on UAE wildlife from the Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG) targeted at school-age children, is so important. Young people should know from their earliest years that we are all custodians of the world around us, and do not have the right to destroy it.

 Source : Gulf News