The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi shared plans to extend protected areas by up to 40 percent within the next two years and develop an advanced gene bank with a functional geonomics facility. The announcement comes just weeks after the emirate announced the launch of its first environmental observatory, which will tackle a range of green issues.

In an interview, Dr. Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary-General of EAD, said, "We already have native plant nurseries producing nearly 400 plants a year and we are hoping to expand it to reach up to one million saplings a year."

She also discussed Abu Dhabi’s plans to set up an Advanced Environment Research Centre by 2024 as part of its strategy for addressing key sustainability challenges.

The Secretary-General gave details of the emirate’s first single-use plastics policy, which is at the drafting stage and advocates both the reduction of single-use plastics consumption and making Turning to another topical issue, Dr. Al Dhaheri said the agency had taken important steps to tackle the over-harvesting of local fish stocks. "We hope to have sustainably used fisheries by 2030," she added. "We are also at the stage of procuring a state-of-the-art marine vessel which will enable us to carry out fish stock assessment more frequently."

She was confident that cutting-edge technologies will lead the way in the drive to protect the environment and biodiversity but cautioned that they’d need to be backed up by behavioral change and a commitment from the business world. "We are ahead of the curve and we will continue to make a bigger push in coming years so that species, habitats, ecosystems, functions and environmental sustainability remain relevant at the local and global level," she said.

WAM