Impact of Climate Change on Arab Countries - (IPCC) - Working ...

ARAB ENVIRONMENT: CLIMATE CHANGE 103
addition, dolphins and whales in international
waters were classified in 2000 as critically endangered,
endangered or vulnerable and numbered
between 11-16 species on the northern coast <strong>of</strong>
Morocco and between 6-10 species in the
Mediterranean Basin, the coast <strong>of</strong> Mauritania,
and the southern coast <strong>of</strong> Morocco (The Atlas <strong>of</strong>
Endangered Species, 2005).
With the inevitable global phenomenon <strong>of</strong> climate
change, freshwater biodiversity in the Arab
world will be greatly impacted and many <strong>of</strong> these
precious resources will not survive. Table 4b outlines
the Arab countries with exceptional large
areas designated as wetlands <strong>of</strong> international
importance in accordance to the Ramsar
Convention.
Ornithological diversity constitutes a major asset
to the Arab world as well as a high risk area in
terms <strong>of</strong> climate change impacts. Many Arab
countries lie on important bird migration routes.
Djibouti, which is a crossroad in the transcontinental
North-South migration corridor, accommodates
1 million birds per year. Mauritania is
home to the biggest wader population in the
world and millions <strong>of</strong> migratory birds come to
the country to stay through the winter months,
while the Hawar Islands <strong>of</strong> Bahrain house the
largest breeding colony <strong>of</strong> Socotra cormorant in
the world. There are many threatened Marine
Important Bird Areas in the Middle East including
the eastern side <strong>of</strong> the Red Sea along the
coastline <strong>of</strong> Saudi Arabia, both Eastern and
Western coastlines <strong>of</strong> the Persian Gulf, along the
coastline <strong>of</strong> the Gulf <strong>of</strong> Oman and Arabian Sea,
along the Mediterranean coastline <strong>of</strong> Lebanon
and Palestine, and within the Gulf <strong>of</strong> Aqaba. The
number <strong>of</strong> threatened birds classified as critically
endangered, endangered or vulnerable in 2004
ranged between 11 and 30 species in all Arab
countries except for Lebanon, Libya, Qatar,
Sudan, and Tunisia which have between 6 to 10
species recorded as threatened (The Atlas <strong>of</strong>
Endangered Species, 2005). The number <strong>of</strong>
threatened birds <strong>of</strong> prey classified as critically
endangered, endangered or vulnerable in 2000
ranged between 5 and 6 species in Saudi Arabia,
3 to 4 species in Egypt, Morocco, Sudan,
Djibouti, Jordan, Palestine, Syria Lebanon, Iraq,
UAE, Kuwait, and Yemen, and in the remaining
countries between 1 and 2 species (The Atlas <strong>of</strong>
Endangered Species, 2005). In terms <strong>of</strong> the
TABLE 1
SPECIES NUMBERS ACROSS THE ARAB WORLD
Country Plants Animals
Algeria 3,164(a) 2,941 (b)
Bahrain 195 (b) -
Djibouti 826 (b) 1,417 (b)
Egypt 2,076 (a) -
Iraq - -
Jordan 2,100 (a) -
Kuwait 234 (a) -
Lebanon 3,000 (a) 4,486 (b)
Libya 1,825 (a) -
Mauritania 1,100 (a) 1,417 (b)
Morocco 3,675 (a) -
Oman 1,204 (a) -
Palestine - -
Qatar 371 (b) -
Saudi Arabia 2,028 (a) -
Somalia 3,028 (a) -
Sudan 3,137 (a) -
Syria 3,000 (a) 2,518 (b)
Tunisia 2,196 (a) 2,244 (b)
United Arab Emirates - -
Sources: a) United Nations Environment Programme, 2005 (a) ; b) CBD national reports
TABLE 2
Abbreviation
CR
EN
VU
IUCN THREAT
CATEGORIES (2008)
Category
Critically endangered
Endangered
Vulnerable
number <strong>of</strong> threatened seabirds classified as critically
endangered, endangered or vulnerable in
2000 most countries either did not have any data
or reported 0 species except for Iraq, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Oman,
and Yemen which reported between 1 and 2
species (The Atlas <strong>of</strong> Endangered Species, 2005).
II. AGRO-BIODIVERSITY AND SMALL
ARAB COMMUNITIES
The Arab world is home to several Centres <strong>of</strong>
Origin (aka Vavilov Centers <strong>of</strong> Diversity) which
are geographical areas where a group <strong>of</strong> organisms,
either domesticated or wild, first developed
their distinctive properties. Until today Vavilov
centres are regions where a high diversity <strong>of</strong> wild
relatives to various crops can be found, representing
the natural relatives <strong>of</strong> domesticated crop