climate change on UAE - Stockholm Environment Institute-US Center

are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation
and inappropriate land use.
Land degradation reduces natural vegetation
cover, and affects productivity. According to a
study conducted by ICARDA Arabian Peninsula
Regional Program, working in collaboration
with the National Agricultural Research
Systems (NARS), and other institutions over
90% of the total area now suffers from some
sort of overgrazing, and 44% is severely or very
severely degraded. The loss of biodiversity
likewise undermines the environmental health
of drylands and makes them more prone to
further degradation.
According to IIED (2008) the major threat
to dryland biodiversity is land degradation
resulting from <strong>climate</strong> variability coupled
with human induced factors like urbanization
and overgrazing, it is upon this bio-physical
and socio-economic base that <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>
impacts will unfold. Andrea (2006) stated that
recently, land degradation in more arid regions
of the world such as the Arabian Peninsula
coupled with progressive population growth has
become a serious concern. Andrea (2006) also
stressed the potential impacts of deforestation
and other forms of land resource exploitation, in
particular oil and gas surveys, on biodiversity.
Other factors
Hunting and trapping of large mammal species
has resulted in very low population levels of
Panthera pardus ssp. nimr and Hemitragus
jayakari. Over the last few decades, the UAE has
lost most of its big fauna such as the Arabian
leopard, Mountain Gazelle, Arabian Tahr,
Development for tourism and recreation is
threatening habitats in and around Jebel Hafit,
which is Abu Dhabi’s only mountainous area.
Habitat degradation and destruction are almost
inevitably accompanied by threats to individual
plant and animal species. The risk is that habitats
are degraded to such an extent that they no longer
provide the means of support to specific species.
Examples of species that have become extinct
in the wild in Abu Dhabi include the Arabian
leopard, the Arabian wolf and the striped hyena
(Drew & Tourenq, 2005).
Oil spills are a threat to the entire coastline of
this ecoregion. Large vehicles and trucks cause
damage to bird and turtle nesting sites. Offroad
driving inland causes much damage to the
vegetation, which is slow to recover due to the
limited annual rainfall.
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