Preserving biodiversity
From enacting legislations and monitoring their implementation, establishing and expanding protected areas, to protecting breeding and reintroducing endangered species into their natural habitats, learn more about UAE's efforts to halt biodiversity loss.
Read about the UAE's efforts to fulfill the SDG 'Life on land' on the UAE's SDGs portal.
City Biodiversity Index in Abu Dhabi
City Biodiversity Index is a self-assessment tool for cities to benchmark and monitor the progress of their biodiversity conservation efforts. The Abu Dhabi City Biodiversity Index will help the emirate to:
- benchmark its biodiversity conservation efforts
- evaluate progress in reducing the rate of biodiversity loss in urban ecosystems
- measure the ecological footprint of cities.
Cities will use this index as a benchmark for further improvements in improving the role of cities, such as Abu Dhabi, in playing a global role in promoting and conserving biodiversity.
Read related news coverage on WAM.
Preserving plants' species
In 2014, the UAE's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment completed the first phase of its date palm tree identification through DNA profiling through a collaboration with the UAE University.
The projects aims to offer all kinds of support to preserve, identify and classify all genetic assets of date palm trees. It also aims to establish a reference database for all types of palm trees found in the UAE, as well as identify and document the extent of their diversity. The project will also help increase the contribution of palm tree planting and date production to the country's gross domestic product.
In addition, many initiatives were launched to preserve the UAE's plant species, including the establishment of 'gene' banks for plants' genetic resources. One initiative will be implemented by Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD), which is set to document and preserve plants through establishing Abu Dhabi Plant Genetics Resources Centre. The purpose of the centre is to collect and document native plants so that if any species became extinct in the wild it could be cultivated in captivity and reintroduced back to nature.
The other is being undertaken at the UAE University in collaboration with the Khalifa Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Sourced from:
- State of the Environment Report 2020 - Ministry of Climate Change and Environment
- Preserving marine biodiversity in the UAE and how to contribute to this goal (PDF, 4 MB) - Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group
- Environment and agriculture in the UAE - the official portal of Abu Dhabi Government
- Five UAE sites identified as areas of global biological and ecological importance - WAM
- UAE Green Economy Report 2014 (PDF, 20 MB)
- The Environmental Atlas of Abu Dhabi Emirate
- Beeatna
Updated on:
02 Sep 2026
