Doha: To preserve biodiversity for sustainability and climate change, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has marked over 1,500 areas with clusters of wild trees (locally called Rawda) for rehabilitation.
The areas with cluster of wild trees were spotted during a country-wide survey conducted by the Ministry under a project ‘Rehabilitating Qatari Lands’,” Assistant Director of the Natural Reserves Department at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Salem Hussein Al Safran told The Peninsula.
He said that the project aims at providing suitable environment for the wild trees in those areas by fencing and planting new trees to protect them from environmental degradation. “The survey recorded over 1,500 ‘Rawda’, areas with over 1.8 million big wild trees of different types such as Sidr, Samur, Awsaj and Al Ghaf,” said Al Safran.
He said that the project was implemented by a dedicated team of engineers and experts having adequate geographic information of soil in the country. “A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used in conducting the survey to provide a complete database for soil conditions favourable for growing trees across Qatar which enabled to select the right places for rehabilitating the areas having trees,” said Al Safran.
Al Safran said that the areas were also selected in a way to benefit from rainwater to ensure the survival of the trees such as low-lying areas in valleys where such trees were found. “After marking the areas through aerial survey, the rehabilitation work started. Some areas have been rehabilitated and works continue in a number of other areas.”
Salem Hussein Al Safran said that the marked areas were having a number of trees but they faced environmental degradation due to low rainfall, cutting for firewood and overgrazing before the issuance of the laws for protecting the green area and grazing ban.
“With the support of laws and rehabilitation project such areas started recovering with new trees and cut brushes, the new project of rehabilitation will enhance restoration process of green area,” said Al Safran. To a question about the challenges of watering trees in the country, he said that the wild trees do not need much water for long. “They need irrigation in the initial stage after reaching to a certain length within three months where they rooted up can survive with little or no-water.”
Speaking about natural reserve, Al Safran said that the number of natural reserves in Qatar reached 12, however so far, nine natural reserves are registered. “There are different types of natural reserves in Qatar some are for propagating rare spices of wild animals like Arab Oryx which reached over 1,500 in Qatar.” Other rare species of wild animals are Al Reem deer and ostriches, he said: “We released a number of such animals in reserves of Barouq and Sealine on the occasion of Qatar Environment Day to introduce the community about the importance of these animals for biodiversity.”
Regarding visits to these reserves, Al Safran said: “Sealine Reserve allows visitors to see the animals from out of the fence. Most of the reserves are under maintenance when they will be ready people can visit them in coordination with Public Relations Department at the Ministry.” He said the Ministry is implementing a number of environmental projects and initiatives including the ‘Rehabilitating Qatari Lands’ project and ‘Plant Million Tree’ initiative to reduce carbon emission for addressing climate change.
