A conservation organisation that has funded thousands of projects to protect endangered species around the world has launched an initiative to encourage a next generation of environmentalists in the UAE.
The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund has inaugurated the Youth Grant for Nature, open to film-makers, photographers, musicians, artists, authors and influencers aged under 18.
The first two recipients – a record-breaking Emirati author and an Indian painter whose art compares to that of a skilled adult – have just been announced, sharing grants worth Dh30,000 between them.
Saeed AlMheiri, a seven-year-old Emirati, who in 2023 set a Guinness World Record as the youngest person to have a book published, and Nazmin Rasheed, a 12-year-old Indian girl from Ajman, will each receive a grant to complete a project for the fund.
The Youth Grant for Nature, run with the Atlantis Atlas Project, marks a departure for the fund, whose focus until now has been on conservation in the field. In a statement, the fund said that sharing nature stories was “equally important for driving change”.
“To effectively share these local stories, we sought a creative approach that would resonate not only within the conservation community but also inspire the next generation of budding conservationists,” the fund said.
Young energy
Saeed, whose books include The Elephant Saeed and the Bear, My True Friend and Melting Ice, will produce a book to tie in with The Dugong and Seagrass Conservation Project, which the fund runs.
“I am already the youngest author with global achievements, but this reminds me that I should use my voice in a bigger way, not only to tell stories, but to help protect nature and make a real difference among other children and even families,” he said.
Saeed is not the only author in his family, as his elder sister AlDhabi has published books and has received recognition as the world’s youngest bilingual author.
The other grant recipient, Nazmin, who described nature as one of her “biggest sources of inspiration”, will produce a painting for each of the eight recipients of a second new initiative from the fund, the UAE Local Leaders Grant, with the aim that these will be shown in an exhibition.
“Being selected for this initiative is a proud and encouraging moment in my journey as a young artist,” she said. “It makes me feel that my ideas and observations through art are valued. This recognition motivates me to explore deeper themes, improve my skills, and use my art to create awareness about things that truly matter.”
Making a difference
Over the past 17 years the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund has supported, mostly with modest-sized grants, more than 3,200 projects for more than 2,000 species in 175 countries.
The new UAE Local Leaders Grant initiative, supported by Mubadala, will focus on conservation fieldwork in the emirates.
Amateur naturalists are among the eight conservationists selected for the first round of grants, which total $100,000.
Some grants will help conservationists find out basic facts about species threatened in the UAE, such as where individuals live and how many there are – information vital for conservation.
One such project, focused on Blanford’s fox, will fund camera traps and data analysis to allow scientists to produce the first detailed population assessment for the species in the UAE.
Blanford’s fox is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, road mortality, and disturbance from the likes of off-road driving and temporary encampments, according to grant recipient Nimish Peter, from Dubai Natural History Group.
“These combined pressures place significant strain on a species that is already highly specialised and has limited capacity to adapt,” he said.
The species has been undetected in the UAE for two decades and current information on its distribution and status is “extremely limited”.
However, by producing distribution maps and population estimates, naturalists will have the information they need for the species' conservation, such as securing protection for key habitats.
Mr Peter described the project as “a crucial first step” towards safeguarding UAE populations of the species, which is named after a British naturalist, William Thomas Blanford, who in 1877 produced the first scientific description of the species. Blanford also had geckos, lizards, snakes and other animals named after him.
“The UAE’s mountain ecosystems are exceptional yet chronically understudied, and the Blanford’s fox represents this challenge perfectly: a highly specialised, beautiful carnivore that most people in the country have never seen or even heard of. Its invisibility is exactly why this work is essential,” Mr Peter said.
Key priorities include, he said, securing formal legal protection, designating mountain habitats as protected areas, making road planning sensitive to wildlife and educating the public so that disturbance is lessened.
Another grant will fund field monitoring of the Omani owl in the Hajar Mountains, especially within Wadi Wurayah National Park.
The grant recipient, Sami Majeed, will use trail cameras and sound recorders to detect what he called “this elusive nocturnal species”, which, in an echo of the challenges facing Blanford’s fox, suffers from habitat disturbance and fragmentation caused by expanding infrastructure and increases inhuman activity in mountain areas outside protected areas.
“These pressures can affect nesting sites and reduce the availability of suitable undisturbed habitat for the species in the wider landscape,” Mr Majeed said.
He said that as well as being important in itself, protecting the species would conserve its mountain habitat.
Another grant will support a year-long biodiversity survey at Jebel Hafeet, where Huw Roberts, an independent researcher, will build up detailed records of species occurrence, particularly among invertebrates.
Projects on leafcutter bees, wild olives, desert puffballs and lapwings have also been selected for financial assistance.
“At the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, we have always believed that conservation is strongest when it is led by people working closest to the challenge,” said Razan Al Mubarak, the fund’s executive managing director.
“This initiative is about supporting those individuals here in the UAE, giving them the means to better understand and protect species, and to build the kind of long-term conservation leadership the country needs.”
