ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
After convening the global climate community at COP28, the UAE has once again brought the world together, this time for nature. As the IUCN World Conservation Congress unfolds in Abu Dhabi, the country is pushing for a results-first formula that marries heritage with technology and brings fishermen, farmers and students into the same loop as scientists.
The result? Houbara populations restored at scale, mangroves replanted with record survival rates, and fisheries rules updated in step with what the water is telling crews at sea.
According to Her Excellency Hiba Al Shehhi, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Biodiversity and Marine Life Sector at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), the UAE's success lies in its policy that treats communities as partners and the belief that the world’s most pressing issues require joint action and a unified front.
“We have always acted as a global convener for action,” Al Shehhi said in an interview with Aletihad on the sidelines of the congress.
“Hosting the IUCN congress is a natural step in our journey. It reinforces our belief that the world’s biggest challenges can only be solved through collaboration and confirms the UAE’s role as a trusted partner and a bridge between nations, committed to building a nature-positive future for all.”
UAE Brings the World to the Table for Conservation
On the congress floor, the emphasis is on deals that travel, not speeches that fade. And for Al Shehhi, the success of the event is measured by how governments and non-state members share the work and whether conversations turn into actionable plans with defined responsibilities and timelines.
“With the IUCN, it’s not just states that are here. NGOs are here, scientists are here, indigenous communities are here, and they have the right to vote. It's these voices that make the difference, and all of us coming together will actually help us innovate and find solutions,” she explained.
The congress, Al Shehhi added, also works as a launchpad for collaborations that move standards from paper into practice, and link environmental progress with socio-economic benefits.
She pointed to the new IRENA-IUCN partnership aimed at guiding the rapid build-out of renewables in a way that protects habitats, and the IUCN Business Summit that brings nature into corporate decisions. The ministry is also closely following the progress of the new Nature-based Education Facility and the IUCN Flagship Report on sustainable food systems.
In parallel, the UAE is releasing tools and methods it helped develop to enable other countries to measure blue carbon and biodiversity outcomes using consistent methods, a move Al Shehhi says is about comparability and trust in the numbers rather than branding.
And, all of this sits against a financial reality that MoCCAE wants the week to confront and act upon.
“When we talk about nature and the conservation of nature, we talk about a huge funding gap — up to $700 billion per year worldwide,” she warned, citing a recent UN study.
“Countries need to work together in order to bridge that gap.”
Making Everyone Part of Conservation
Much like its stance at the IUCN congress, the UAE’s overarching approach to modern conservation is based on the idea that innovation counts only “when it empowers people at every level”. Al Shehhi revealed that the ministry plans to achieve this goal through three channels that run alongside each other.
The first is targeted partnerships, such as the HSBC-funded “Nature-based Solutions for Climate, Biodiversity, and People” with Emirates Nature-WWF, which pilots tools with local communities to prove technical and commercial viability.
The second is education and capacity building, including Mustadeem and the ministry’s work with Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence to create an AI lab for sustainable agriculture and encourage farmers to adopt smarter methods.
The third channel is citizen science. MoCCAE is developing digital tools that make residents active participants in data collection by logging sightings and habitat changes. Similarly, through initiatives like the Plant the Emirates National Programme, students and educators can meaningfully contribute to the UAE’s greening efforts.
“Our goal is to democratise environmental action and make everyone a partner in our sustainable future,” Al Shehhi said.
The same principle sits behind the way conservation science is presented to Arab-speaking professionals and communities. The UAE sponsored the Arabic edition of the Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas — a recognised framework used to map irreplaceable sites for species and ecosystems — and launched it with IUCN last week.
The translation gives scientists, policymakers, and communities the tools to identify and map irreplaceable sites using a recognised, data-driven standard.
“This will build a more unified and effective conservation network. Governments can align national strategies with global best practices. Civil society can make stronger, science-backed cases for protection. Local capacity grows as language barriers fall, enabling broader engagement and better implementation within the region’s unique ecological and cultural contexts,” Al Shehhi explained.
Nine key biodiversity areas have been identified in the UAE through the framework, and the MoCCAE official revealed that 98% of them are already under formal protection, including new marine zones that matter for dugongs.
Another important part of the equation, Al Shehhi added, is to explain ecosystem benefits in practical terms for each audience. With financiers and coastal developers, she starts with what mangroves do rather than abstract ideals.
“This is their language,” she said, adding that this approach helps a decision-maker see risk and opportunity in familiar terms.
For example, mangroves are known for their water filtration benefits, and clearer near-shore water supports stronger hotel performance. Meanwhile, removing mangroves allows sediment to cloud beaches and depress their value. On the plant’s soil stabilisation properties, she points to real-life examples, such as that "islands with mangrove buffers were found to be around 40-50% less affected" by major disasters like tsunamis.
Incorporating Tradition into Modern Solutions for Nature
Al Shehhi describes the UAE’s conservation mindset as one where heritage and modern tools pull in the same direction, with traditional knowledge “at the heart” of how projects are designed and delivered.
“In the UAE, we don’t see tradition and innovation as separate; we see them working together,” she said.
“This commitment is not new; it reflects a 50-year legacy rooted in our national identity and inspired by our founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who recognised that our prosperity is tied to the health of our land and seas.”
That lineage shows up first as practice and then as policy, and Al Shehhi shared a story that predates the country’s unification to illustrate the connection.
When Sheikh Zayed learned that island families were hunting dugongs for food, he arranged supplies so the practice could stop and then imposed a ban. The result is a population in UAE waters that is classed as near threatened locally rather than endangered, which Al Shehhi said offers proof that protection lasts when it answers a human need at the same time as it safeguards a species.
The Houbara programme applies the same instinct with 21st-century methods. Faced with declines of the MacQueen’s bustard, the UAE financed one of the largest single-species efforts in the world and chose to keep falconry while restoring the bird.
“At one point, it was either our tradition for falconry or nature conservation. The UAE did not let go of either,” Al Shehhi said. Breeding centres in the UAE, Morocco, and Kazakhstan now support different populations, with close to one million birds bred and more than 620,000 released.
“We carry this forward through collaboration. MoCCAE works with fishermen, farmers and coastal communities to manage marine reserves and shape policy, recognising their traditional knowledge of marine ecosystems and their value in advancing sustainable farming.”
An in-situ example of that approach are mangroves. Herders once brought camels to groves where aerial roots shed salt, and animals licked minerals from the surface without harming the trees. Al Shehhi said that this early practice still has a role in the UAE’s modern rehabilitation efforts.
“When the herders bring their camels, they actually relieve those roots from the accumulated salts, so they help as well,” she said, adding that in some sites, the authorities allow controlled access for herders while teams blend manual planting with AI-guided seeding to reach mudflats and inlets that people cannot.
Next Generation Leads the Way for UAE Conservation
In the run-up to the IUCN congress, the UAE has hosted multiple editions of the Nature Guardians Majlis. Launched during the UN General Assembly High-Level week, the initiative brings youth, NGOs, private sector and government entities into open sessions, giving everyone a voice in guiding the future of conservation.
Building on that momentum, the UAE-hosted edition of the IUCN congress gives youth a larger platform — right at the centre of the programme. For the first time, a dedicated youth pavilion sits on the main floor, and Al Shehhi stressed that this placement matters because it puts students, early-career researchers and young entrepreneurs in the same rooms as decision-makers.
“We see the youth not just as an audience to inspire, but as co-creators of environmental policy,” she said.
“A core aim of the IUCN congress is to engage and empower the next generation of environmental stewards, inspiring them to drive future conservation.”
According to Al Shehhi, the goal of the majlis, and all other MoCCAE initiatives — both at the congress and after — is to make conservation something people can touch, and give them a way to see their effort show up in policy. That is the message she also wants delegates to carry home from Abu Dhabi.
“If people love something, they will protect it. When you connect people to nature, when you help them experience it, they become part of the solution.”