It is time to create many national parks

As Fujairah plans the country’s first park, it may be worth taking the idea a bit further

Sir Bani Yas Island nature reserve is home to some 13,000 animals. Karim Sahib / AFP

National parks are different in different countries. Sometimes they are designated and managed in different ways. But they share a common purpose: the conservation of nature for posterity and as a symbol of national pride and for the enjoyment of all. As far back as the 1830s, American painter George Catlin was writing about creating “a magnificent park ... A nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!”

This is why we wholeheartedly cheer the news that Fujairah Municipality and the UAE's wildlife conservation group are working on a project to create a national park in Wadi Wurayah, a place famous for its natural beauty and home to several species of rare and endangered flora and fauna. As The National reported yesterday, the initiative aims to transform the area into a natural conservation hub, which will also offer eco-tourism opportunities and the chance to educate people about the environment.

But why stop at Wadi Wurayah? There are many places across the country that could be designated as national parks and protected and managed to maximise the sense that they are sanctuaries of unspoilt nature.

Take Al Gharbia, which comprises more than two-thirds of Abu Dhabi emirate. Starting at Madinat Zayed in the Western Region and stretching through the Empty Quarter, it is part of the largest continuous body of sand in the world. Gazelles, oryx, sand cats and spiny-tailed lizards are to be found there among the dunes and deadly quicksand. The Western Region is already home to several popular heritage events such as the Tel Moreeb Festival, Al Dhafrah Camel Festival, Al Gharbia Watersports Festival and Liwa Date Festival. But a national park, a sand park really, would link them all by underscoring the supreme importance of the desert to us. And it would protect a part of our land that is often subject to the casual interference resulting from activities such as dune-bashing.

While we’re on the subject, why not a maritime national park as well with a fleet of vessels both historic and new, a visitor centre, a maritime museum and perhaps a library-cum-research facility?