As part of the measures to preserve the unique ecosystems, the Sultanate seeks to enforce environmental laws covering everything from a broad array of endangered plants to animals.
To preserve this national wealth, the Sultanate has enacted a number of laws and regulations aimed at protecting the natural habitats and wildlife and the right of all generations to benefit from natural resources in a balanced and equitable manner.
For the Omanis, protecting wildlife and maintaining their natural habitat is nothing new. The country is today home to a number of designated areas for conservation of wild fauna and flora.
More than 100 animals including Arabian oryx, Arabian gazelle, Reem gazelle were released in the wildlife reserve in Al Wusta governorate last year.
Stringent rules and regulations are in place for the protection of wildlife and endangered species. The country has also prepared national protection strategies and plans, such as the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, the National Strategy for Economic Botany species.
It also issued the national Red Lists for endangered species, and established several governmental authorities and research centres for the implementation of strategies and projects related to the continuous preservation of endangered species.
The Sultanate has been keen to announce the nature reserves and sites declared by royal decrees and orders. These protected areas include desert reserves, some of them in rugged mountainous areas, representing 3.77 per cent of the total area of the Sultanate.
It was in the early seventies that the Sultanate launched the Arabian Oryx preservation project, through which it was able to reintroduce the species into the Omani environment following the extinction of the wild Oryx at that time.
Nature reserves have been set up throughout the Sultanate to protect the natural habitats of mammals such as the leopard, Oryx, gazelle, Tahr, Ibex, desert foxes and wild cats.
In 1997, the first project for the protection of the Arabian Leopard was established, the first effective protection measures took place with the declaration of these animals’ living area, known as Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve as a natural reserve.
Since 2007, the Sultanate launched the Sooty Falcon study project and installed satellite tracking devices on the chicks of these predatory vultures with the support of local institutions and in international cooperation with Austria’s BirdLife International and The Peregrine Fund in the Republic of Madagascar.
The sooty falcon migration route that starts in Oman and ends in the African Island of Madagascar was tracked. This was the first-ever practical study for tracking juvenile sooty falcons that took stock of their migration route and the most prominent obstacles and challenges these vultures face.
From 2013 to 2016, the Sultanate implemented a systemic biological and geographical study project related to the Sultanate’s reptiles. The study revealed an unprecedented diversity in Oman’s terrestrial reptiles. Twenty-four new reptile species were discovered, out of which 14 are currently populating the Sultanate.
The study project resulted in the documentation of more than 101 terrestrial reptiles in Oman, representing 50 per cent of the total reptile species population in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Al Saleel park is a nature reserve located in Al Kamil W’al Wafi and was established to protect gazelles and plantations of Samr and Ghaf trees. The Jiddat al Harasis Reserve is home to the Arabian Oryx and the area is listed on the World Natural and Cultural Heritage register by Unesco.
Omani’s inhabited environment varies in the mountains. Therefore, the government, according to the Sustainable Development Goals report, seeks to create all the conditions under which Omani people can integrate the life around them, especially in the light of modern development.
“This has contributed to varying degrees in changing the customs and practices of the Sultanate. But the life of people in the mountains of Oman is based on traditions and practices throughout the history of Oman, and this mountain environment still retains its beauty and characteristics, despite the features of change, comprehensive development, progress and modernisation witnessed by Oman in all governorates of the Sultanate”, comments the report.
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