Ocean Sentry
Standing knee-deep in the ocean at several sites around Qatar are forests of mangrove trees, an extraordinary, even bizarre form of vegetation that seems to thrive on life on the edge. Some of these, such as the thriving mangrove forests along the north-west coast immediately west of Al Ruwais, are doing well; others, including the mangroves at Khor Al Adaid, are struggling to survive.
In August 2006 the Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Reserves (SCENR), which was replaced last year by the Ministry of the Environment, passed Resolution No.6 to consider the Al Dhakhira area a “protected nature area”.
The resolution specifically prohibited the “cutting, or destroying, or transporting plants” and “rooting out or cutting of wildlife organisms or parts of it, or the collection of their seeds unless there are scientific purposes behind it”. The message is unequivocal, and signboards were erected beside the mangroves at Al Dhakhira, prohibiting their destruction.
Environmental scientists, bird-watching enthusiasts and all those who love the natural environment of Qatar were therefore dismayed when widespread destruction of an area of the mangroves at Al Dhakhira, using heavy machinery, began last month and is still ongoing. Pumps are at work draining the site.
The engineer in charge of the machinery told an environmental scientist that the mangroves were being removed because “local people did not like the smell”.
During the last two weeks, Gulf Times has made every effort to find out from officials at the Ministry of the Environment whether sites declared protected by the SCENR are still under protection, if the large-scale destruction of mangroves on what appears to be a protected site was officially authorised, and if not, whether any action may be taken against the perpetrators.
Despite many telephone calls, e-mails and faxes to Environmental Expert Dr Mohamed Alaa Abdel-Moati, Media Centre Director Khalid Saleh Thabet and Head of Public Relations Saif Mohamed Shandhour, no clear picture has emerged. When asked whether the Ministry of the Environment knew of the destruction and had been informed, the Media Centre director was not able to answer.
A tropical plant numbering some 70 species, mangroves mostly live within 30 degrees of the equator and are most prolific in Southeast Asia. Here in Qatar we have just the one species, Avicennia marina or the Grey Mangrove, known as gurm in Arabic, living right on the northern limit of its range.
It occurs in Oman and the UAE but there are no more mangroves along the coastline of the Arabian Gulf between Qatar and Kuwait.
These extraordinary plants, which live as it were with one foot on land and one in the sea, survive in a zone of salt levels, suffocating anaerobic mud and soaring summer temperatures that would kill most plants.
Yet the mangrove forests are one of the most productive and complex ecosystems on earth. They provide shelter for thousands of sea birds, shellfish and crabs live among their roots, and juvenile fish, including commercial varieties, find shelter among them before growing large enough to venture into the open ocean.
Mangrove flowers are a rich source of nectar for insects such as bees, which, like the birds, make their nests among the branches.
The Grey Mangrove has evolved a specialised system to cope with the anaerobic conditions. In addition to the roots which anchor them firmly to the ground are long, straight, horizontal roots which radiate in lines from each tree. From these vertical spikes poke up through the mud like rows of pencils. These are pneumatophores, which act like snorkels, allowing the tree to breathe.
After the efforts that have been made in the past to protect the coastal environment of Qatar, including the mangrove forests, it is indeed disturbing and saddening to witness such widespread destruction taking place without those who are supposedly in charge of implementing such protection willing or able to comment when the destruction takes place.
(From gulf-times.com, Khawr al Udayd, Qatar, By Fran Gillespie)
