Zayed - the environmentalist
Over the course of the last year, under the leadership of his successor as Abu Dhabi Ruler and President, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has continued to make steady progress. As H.H. Sheikh Khalifa himself has noted, though, the path that is being followed to such effect is that which laid down by Sheikh Zayed himself.
One area in which that is quite apparent is in the UAE's concern with protecting the natural environment and with conserving the cultural heritage of its people.It has often been noted that Sheikh Zayed was an environmentalist long before it became fashionable to be one.
In a fragment of biography published a quarter of a century ago, Sheikh Zayed recalled the moment in his youth when he recognised that the over-exploitation of natural resources could, and would, lead to the extinction of species.
"One day I set out on a hunting expedition in open country. My game was a large herd of gazelles spread over a wide area. I followed them and began shooting. Three hours later, I stopped to count my bag, and found I had shot fourteen gazelle. I pondered over this a long time. I realised that hunting with a gun was no more than an outright attack on animals, and a cause of their rapid extinction. I changed my mind, and decided to restrict myself to falconry only".
Sheikh Zayed was born into a world where the inter-relationship of Man and Nature was a crucial part of life itself. The time-honoured traditions of nomadism and of the skills they involved of living off a harsh and demanding land were still the key to survival for many of the people of Abu Dhabi.
His knowledge of the environment around him led him to recognise the dangers posed by a non-sustainable exploitation of resources. He drew that insight from his knowledge of the traditional heritage of the people of the Emirates, and was interested not just in ensuring the conservation of wildlife, but also in learning about it.
In the early 1960s, aware that the Arabian oryx was on the verge of extinction in Oman, he arranged, just in time, for the capture of two breeding pairs for the nucleus of a captive-breeding programme. Today, 40 years later, there are well over 2,000 Arabian oryx in captivity in the UAE, many on the island of Sir Bani Yas, which he turned into a private nature reserve.
In the late 1960s, when he became Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed created the Association for Animal Welfare, a group of rangers who patrolled - and still patrol - the deserts to ensure that there was no uncontrolled hunting of wildlife.
He also pursued his interest in falconry and conservation, not just as a participant, but as the source of numerous initiatives that have come, over the years, to have a far-reaching effect. Thus the 1st World Conference on Falconry and Conservation, held in Abu Dhabi at the end of 1976, for the first time, brought falconers from North America, Europe and the Far East together with falconers from Arabia, acting as the launch pad for a strategy devised by Sheikh Zayed to bring falconers into the mainstream of emerging conservation efforts. It was at this time that captive-bred falcons from Europe first began to appear in Arabia, launching a trend that today sees most UAE falconers choosing captive-bred birds by preference.
A few years later, on Sheikh Zayed's instructions, the country's first Hunting Law was promulgated, providing protection to virtually all of the UAE's wildlife.The issuing of legislation and the establishing of new governmental structures, such as the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, now the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, EAD, is, of course, a function of Government. Sheikh Zayed also showed in his own private actions, however, that his personal commitment to conservation was deep-rooted, an essential component of the way he looked upon the world around him.
One example is the way in which he encouraged research into the ecology of falcons while he was amongst the first to discern the threats to wild falcon populations and set in motion a wide variety of captive-breeding programmes for species related to falconry. Another was the launching of the Zayed Falcon Release Programme, which has now seen well over 1000 birds released back into the wild.
Today, many of the initiatives on the environment and wildlife conservation made by Sheikh Zayed are enshrined in legislation.
Sheikh Zayed also showed a deep and abiding personal interest in the history and heritage of his country. He recognised the need for change, and worked to bring the benefits of modern development to the people of Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a whole. At the same time, however, he was always eager to advocate the necessity of preserving the fundamental traits of UAE society that have permitted its people to live in an environment where the harshness of nature itself has always made simple survival a challenge.
In one often-quoted statement, Sheikh Zayed said: "History is a continuous chain of events. The present is only an extension of the past. He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and future, for it is from the past that we learn. The new generation should have a proper appreciation of the role played by their forefathers." Sheikh Zayed learned of the ways of the people of the Emirates in his youth. He imbibed the traditions and listened to the oral history of the tribesmen, the stories which spoke of their origins and of the conflicts of the past. Those tales sparked a desire in Sheikh Zayed's mind to know more of the past and to contribute to the removal of the veil of ignorance that has long concealed the heritage of the people of the Emirates.
Back in 1959, the arrival of a group of Danes to examine what appeared to constitute little more than piles of stones on a little island near Abu Dhabi must have seemed somewhat odd to Sheikh Zayed and his fellow citizens. Most Europeans who visited Abu Dhabi were British, and most were connected either with the oil industry or the British Government.
This group, however, came from a country that was unfamiliar. Denmark had no traditional ties with the Gulf.
The group was, of course, the first team of archaeologists ever to visit the Emirates, and the island was that of Umm al-Nar, where the team was beginning the process of uncovering the evidence of a previously unknown civilisation.
One of the leaders of the team was Geoffrey Bibby who recorded later how Sheikh Zayed displayed his interest in what they were doing.
He came out to visit the team at Umm al-Nar, and asked hosts of questions about what they were doing, and the meaning of what they were finding in the massive collective tombs, more than four thousand years old. And, in the discussion, he tempted the archaeologists with stories of other mounds.
"If you want to see mounds like these in their hundreds," he said, "you should come to Al Ain." The archaeologists took him up on his invitation, and journeyed to Al Ain a few weeks later.
"Zayed s boast of hundreds of mounds was not idle," Bibby wrote. "Around us on the ridge stood quite that number, and as our eyes accustomed themselves to the landscape, we could see mounds on every crag and crest and spur, all the way to Mount Hafit itself." Sheikh Zayed urged Bibby and his colleagues to come and work at Al Ain, putting at their disposal some of the sparse resources then available to him. And, in a demonstration of his interest in their work, he suggested to them new areas in which they might look. One such suggestion, in 1962, was that they should examine a scattered heap of large stones in a desert area near the village of Hili.This proved to be the Hili Tomb, another site of major importance for the history and heritage of the Emirates.
During the process of its excavation and subsequent restoration, Sheikh Zayed was a frequent visitor.
Sheikh Zayed continued for the rest of his life to maintain his interest in the topic of the country's heritage. He initiated, for example, the formation in 1991 of the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS, and paid particular attention to its discovery on Sir Bani Yas of the only known pre-Islamic Christian monastery in the southern Arabian Gulf.
In terms of the heritage of the UAE, it is clear that Sheikh Zayed was motivated by a genuine scientific curiosity to know more about the past.
His curiosity was driven by a belief that today's Emiratis need to know of the ways of their ancestors, their lifestyle, how they survived, what resources they were able to tap - in essence what were the circumstances that made them who they were. Through understanding the ways of the past, he believed, the people of today are better able to recognise the significance of the changes of the modern world and, at the same time, to put them in context. Similarly, in terms of environment and wildlife, through understanding and conserving it, Man today has a chance of maintaining an evolving balance with Nature, that is of value not merely for today's generation, but for the generations to come. Those beliefs, a legacy from Sheikh Zayed to the people of the UAE, continue to provide the basis of government policy on heritage and the environment today.
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