Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
The International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC), a global leader in pre-emptive species conservation, is introducing visitors of the 12th World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) to the UAE’s efforts behind restoring the wild populations of the houbara bustard, which has played a critical role in the practice of falconry in the Arabian Peninsula.
In an interview with Aletihad, Senior Communications Specialist at the IFHC, Ali Mubarak Alshamsi, provided an overview of the IFHC’s efforts in securing a “sustainable future” for the houbara bustard and its significance in Emirati culture.
He noted that in olden times, the people of the desert in the UAE used to wait for the arrival of the houbara bustard in migration seasons to hunt it for food using trained wild falcons. As years passed by, this practice developed into the sport of falconry, which is today considered to be a significant part of Emirati heritage.
The IFHC was founded by the Founding Father of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Upon noting the decline of houbara numbers in the wild in the late 1970s, Sheikh Zayed set out to launch conservation and breeding programmes to reverse this trend, he added.
The first Asian houbara chicks were bred at Al Ain Zoo in 1982, while the first Asian houbara chicks were produced in 1996 at the National Avian Research Centre (NARC), the world’s first dedicated houbara research and breeding facility which opened in Abu Dhabi in 1989, according to the IFHC website.
These conservation efforts later on expanded internationally with the opening of the Emirates Centre for Wildlife Propagation in Morocco in 1995, and the release of the captive-bred Asian houbara for the first time in Kazakhstan in 2009.
Alshamsi pointed out that four facilities currently operate under the umbrella of the IFHC in the UAE, Morocco, and Kazakhstan to breed Asian and North African species of the houbara bustard. The IFHC also cooperates with over 17 countries, where produced houbara bustards are released into their natural habitats in the wild.
IFHC figures made available to Aletihad show that its journey, which spans over more than four decades, has resulted in the production of 384,414 houbara bustards since the official initiation of its conservation efforts in the year 1996 and up until 2023 via the NARC and the Sheikh Khalifa Houbara Breeding Centre in Abu Dhabi.
“Our participation in this international conference is closely linked to one of the main cornerstones on which this IFHC is built, and that is awareness and education,” Alshamsi told Aletihad.
He noted that the IFHC aims to educate visitors, particularly children, on efforts related to the conservation of the houbara and its ties to the cultural heritage of the UAE. Its pavilion at the WEEC offers visitors the opportunity to interact with living houbara bustards, in addition to exploring research efforts related to its conservation.
The 12th edition of WEEC held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) continues until February 2. It brings together global visitors from various fields to exchange knowledge on environmental education, climate change, and sustainable development, under the theme “Connecting People, Creating Tomorrow”.
