By Santhosh Shyamsundar
Dubai is, without a shadow of doubt, the commercial capital of the Middle East. The emirate may be synonymous with rapid urbanisation and skyscrapers, but this has all been balanced with a major conservation effort – a desert conservation reserve.
AS a kid who thoroughly enjoyed the torrential monsoon downpour and tropical richness of flora and fauna, the very mention of a desert could only evoke an imagery of a barren stretch of sand. While reality is that these desert habitats, if protected and conserved, contain some of the worlds’ most intriguing wildlife, and delicate ecosystems.
One of the missions of Earthwitness is to explore the secrets of nature, and to have a better understanding of the environment we live in. When our team was invited to visit the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR), it could’ve been only a blessing in disguise, an opportunity not to be missed, to find out more about the last pristine desert, one that has been patiently restored over a decade, and now back to what it was before the onslaught of development and urbanisation.
As we drive into the reserve in the early hours of the day, a sense of expectation fills – of spotting a few Arabian oryx, and a number of Gazelles flitting through the intricate dunes. After a quick verification of our credentials, we’re allowed to continue on our journey onto Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa, the resort project which launched one of the most ambitious conservation projects in recent times.
We’re received at Al Maha by Jorg, our designated guide, who’s in a hurry to take us around before the sun gets too hot. As we drive through the reserve, always keeping to a designated track – no “off-roading” here – we track a small group of graceful Arabian oryx, active in the cool of morning before seeking shade as the sun climbs higher in the sky.
The reserve is punctuated with ghaf trees and firebush – small to giant – which provide shade in the burning heat. There is also Sodom apple plants, and far from being ‘empty’ the range of plant-life is astounding. In the heat, we spotted quite a few desert lizards, shy creatures they are, and absolutely comfortable in this pristine environment.
AL MAHA DESERT RESORT AND SPA
Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa is a conservation-based property of Emirates Hotels and Resorts, the Emirates Group’s hospitality division. The resort, which opened nine years ago, originally had a 27-square-kilometre natural reserve. In February 2004, the reserve attained status of a national park, with legal registration and amendments to local laws on management practices passed under Ruler’s decree. Today, the DDCR covers 225 square kilometres of desert, almost five per cent the land area of the emirate of Dubai. To give the extent of its importance to conservation, this percentage of land area, if proclaimed in the UK, would be the equivalent of Northern Ireland being declared a national park.
Tony Williams, senior vice-president, Emirates Hotels and Resorts, and general secretary of the DDCR, is one of the key people responsible for creating this miracle in the Arabian desert. He joined Emirates 12 years ago as project manager for the development of Al Maha Desert Resort, and over the years the resort has won numerous international awards for its pioneering efforts in conservation.
Williams, who is passionate about the environment and sustainability, holds a bachelor of science (HDE), specialising in ecological management, from the University of Natal, South Africa. As a trained ecologist and a true nature lover, his vast experience in responsible tourism, which stretches back to many years of involvement with game lodges and wildlife reserves in South and Southern Africa, has contributed tremendously to the success of Al Maha and the DDCR.
“The function of any national park is to protect the biodiversity, and, in that context, has to financially sustain that protection. We adopted a sustainable model, which meant encouraging visitors – managing their impact on the environment – to allow access, providing the experiences so that people can understand why the environment is important and needs to be protected.
“There’s a real need for any country to be able to benchmark its environment. It is impossible to know what damage is done, unless there is an original ecosystem to compare it with. There’s a need to maintain the original footprint of the environment, as well as it’s a full sample of its biodiversity and natural processes.”
OFFICIALLY RECOGNISED
Williams reveals that DDCR is in the process of preparing and submitting documentation to become an officially recognised protected area under the United Nations Environment Programme and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “The work on the reserve is being sponsored by Emirates, and we have enormous support from Government of Dubai, and its organisations. Al Maha contributes through manpower, resources for researchers, and we employ our own research staff for data gathering.
“We undertake species counts, habitat checks, floral count and various ecological programmes.” Williams is happy that Al Maha is a commercial success. It provides guests with a unique experience of the desert environment, cultural and natural heritage of the area.
“People in their three to four-day visit to Al Maha get a unique snapshot of the desert and all it encompasses: the cultures that emerged, the history and heritage of the region, and of course the whole wildlife experience. They’re extremely well taken care of, with all the luxury of a five-star-plus small hotel, very personalised to their individual interests and requirements. Many of our guests come to Al Maha to experience the ecological aspect.
“I think many come initially for the luxury of space and the tranquillity of the desert. Within a short period they certainly do come to appreciate all that we do here. We do obviously also let them know that just by being with us they are contributing greatly to the protection programs and important research being done. I think in general our guests appreciate this.”
Arne Silvis, resort manager at Al Maha, reveals that as a high-end luxury provider, the resort attracts many local guests as well as visitors from Europe, Japan, and the US. He adds, “Al Maha is one of the worlds’ most successful luxury small hotels, and it has done very well since its opening nearly 10 years ago.”
“We’re now in the middle of summer and still at 90 per cent occupancy this week. Winters, its choc-a-block, and we are privileged to have guests that visit us each year, some having stayed at Al Maha more than 15 times since we opened.
“We reduce rates in summer to encourage those in the UAE to experience this unique property. The entire concept of incorporating activities with five-star luxury, excellent food and beverage together with the conservation reserve really works well. It’s not just another hotel, and in fact it was the only hotel in Dubai which achieved a place in the Condé Nast Travellers’ Top 20 resort lists.”
SUSTAINABILITY
At Al Maha, sustainability was identified as a central theme, even at a design stage, and long before this became an issue with the public. Williams is proud of the resort, setting the benchmark against which many are now judged. “The technology that’s available today is light years ahead of what it was 10 years ago, and still Al Maha is one of the best sustainable buildings in Dubai – which says a lot.
“If you take care of the basic aspects and manage the environment prudently, it becomes sustainable.” Water is the most precious thing in any desert, and at Al Maha it’s no different. As part of the sustainability measure, water use, reuse and recycling is central to design.
Silvis says, “Sometimes people ask us, well, you’ve individual swimming pools and big bathtubs. It uses a lot of water. When you first look at the 42 swimming pools we have, that, too, in one of the driest regions of the world, you’re bound to ask: how sustainable is that?
“It’s about how water is managed, without impacting on the experience of the guests. Prior to Al Maha and the establishment of the DDCR the natural water table was being wasted and indiscriminately pumped dry. This has all been stopped now, and the water we use, and reuse, is miniscule.”
Silvis confirms that the resort gets all its water from bore wells. “We have six bore wells on the property, however, all the water used at the resort is returned to the ground via a complex irrigation system, ultimately returning to the water table. We estimate about 14 per cent loss to evaporation.”
“The Hajjar Mountains, to the east, has a clay bank, and the water runs down into this valley so the water is replenished every year. We’re certainly not concerned about water levels, provided we stick to its sustainable use.”
There’s so much talk these days in the Middle East about going green – green buildings and renewable energy – to achieve sustainability. Williams explains it best through Al Maha and DDCR models.
“Sustainability shouldn’t just be applied to the natural environment; it must be applied to everyone living within any given environment. We need to ask: what do we need to do in order to ensure that the location in which we live is sustainable. Whether it’s the population size, the way in which we live, the resources we use, or the changes we make to the natural environment; to be sustainable means that what we do and what we build must be able to be supported through time. Ultimately, that’s where the buck stops.”
THE DESERT MAGIC
In less than a decade, Al Maha has witnessed a magic transformation. The desert was overrun by relentless camel over-grazing, uncontrolled 4WD driving, and haphazard wasteful farming practices. Greg Simkins, the conservation manager at Al Maha, has a deep understanding of the desert ecology.
Simkins, who has been with the project since 1999, explains, “Today, visitors who participate in organised desert safaris will have a far superior experience than what was possible 10 years ago. Safari guides are educated into the ecology and wildlife, there is more wildlife to be seen, and by limiting the damage to the habitat the quality of what the guest experiences is much better, and much safer.”
Since 1999 Al Maha started environmental audits of the surrounding desert, and in 2001 a report was put together for the Dubai Government. The report covered massive amounts of research, and all the complexities of conservation, development, tourism, and social responsibility. The reaction of Government was astounding, and a tribute to the leadership of Dubai, with an immediate response to us to ensure the creation of this reserve.
The biggest task for the DDCR team was to minimise the effect of desert safaris within the reserve. Today, the reserve is well protected with a fence line 93 kilometres long.
He remembers what it was like before the Ruler’s Decree. There were 23 tour operators engaged in the desert-safari business without any control or regulation in any form. “The environmental impact was substantial, just from the vehicles driving in the desert. We went through quite a lengthy process of selecting four tour operators.”
ENVIRONMENTAL SIDE
“All tour operators operating within the area were asked to submit applications to continue operating in the area. From those operators a majority of them didn’t even apply. The four tour operators were selected after a thorough study, which looked into the environmental side, how they operate, where the tourists come from and obviously the numbers.
“We didn’t just go for the biggest operators. The standards used were based on sustainability. We then worked closely with each of these four tour operators, to establish the routes and roads they were allowed to use in their reserve.
“An individual tour operator has dedicated routes, and certain routes have a buffer area in which they can do their tour. In the gravel plains it comes down to a single track. Each tour operator strictly adheres to the assigned routes.”
DDCR practices a well-known method of utilising a protected area under the category of IUCN protected areas. The reserve fits in the category of a national park which is an area primarily protected for conservation purposes but recreational activities are allowed in the area. In the established union framework, zoning is permitted within the protected area.
In high-exposure zones, activities, such as camel and horse riding and walking are permitted. Then there are areas which have no tourism activity at all and are only visited for specific purposes of research and wildlife management.
Once the zones and best practices are established, continuous monitoring is required to ensure the rules and regulations are adhered to. Simkins adds, “All tour operators make a substantial contribution to the conservation project through the paying of entry ways. Each guest is charged AED10 (USD3), which also includes Al Maha guests.
“That revenue goes directly to the Dubai Conservation Board and is used by the DDCR. The money is used exclusively for conservation projects.” The reserve isn’t necessarily generating a huge amount of money but at least it isn’t being funded by the government. Simkins is proud of what they have achieved in the desert reserve.
“DDCR is self-sustainable. Besides the cost of initial infrastructure set up, the Dubai government hasn’t paid anything further for the last six years into the management and running of the conservation here. Emirates has provided full sponsorship of the research done here, including the employment of full-time researchers and managers.
“They have sponsored us now for the sixth year, approximately AED2 million (USD545,000) a year. With that sponsorship, and the money generated from visitors, we’re able to cover all our running costs.” He’s quick to add, “We’re looking to not rely on sponsorship in the long run either.” Simkins details how the planning process progressed through different stages. “The initial idea was always to have a luxury hotel within a conservation area which makes a contribution to the environment.
CONSERVATION
“Al Maha is probably unique in the world in that it was a lodge created in its own small protected area and then expanded into a larger protected area of national proportions. Globally, it normally happens the other way around.” The main task of the conservation reserve was the reintroduction of the then listed endangered specie – the Arabian oryx, as well as two indigenous, threatened gazelle species: the Arabian gazelle and sand gazelle.
The oryx project received the main focus in the early days, and it was used to symbolise the project – Al Maha takes its name from its Bedu name says Simkins. “We wanted to get a herd for breeding and increase these numbers to where the species was secure. We achieved this initially, and it then seemed to stagnate a little bit.”
“We made changes in how we managed the herds. In the early stages we had all the herds in one location to supplementary feeding, and our objective was to get them to breed. We were successful to a point, and then we realised that the herds were becoming too big, unnaturally confined in a smaller area. We started to split water and feeding locations, trans-located and established smaller herds of about 20-30 animals each across the whole of the DDCR. At that stage we had a 120 oryx in the reserve, and today we have doubled that population. As a species, the oryx is relatively safe here, as a completely wild, migratory species they’re still very much under threat, hence the importance of the DDCR to their future.”
The real challenge for DDCR was to move away from oryx breeding and to establish self-sustaining herds of oryx in the natural habitat. Simkins is proud of the results. “We’re still doing limited supplementary feeding, though the percentage of what we feed them has decreased.
“The numbers of oryx have increased but the feed hasn’t. So gradually they’re getting less on supplementary feed and having to spend more on the desert environment.” The successful rehabilitation of oryx in its natural habitat takes time and patience.
Simkins explains, “On the environment side, when you’re introducing animals like oryx, you’d like to introduce them into a pristine environment. That was not the case with DDCR.
“Most of the areas were over-grazed. We had to take a holistic view of what we were trying to do. We had to treat it as not just an oryx project but a conservation area which includes everything from plants and insects to the oryx itself. The supplementary feeding has taken some pressure off the vegetation.
“Gradually, year on year we get an improvement on the vegetation, and we’ve realised that the southern area of the reserve has recovered quite substantially. We now have 50-70 oryx that don’t rely on any supplementary feeding at all.” The numbers of animals using the feeding stations during the good period (winter) have been on a steady decrease, with about 180 animals visiting during a week.
During the summer the number goes up to 250-270. The gazelles, which were also reintroduced in the early days, haven’t relied on supplementary feeding at all even though feeding stations are available to them. “Because they’re smaller animals and select grazers, they don’t need to eat huge bulks and can go to find all the tasty morsels.
“We’ve had success on both the Arabian gazelles and the smaller project of sand gazelles,” says Simkins. One of the other projects DDCR is undertaking on the conservation side is an extensive vegetation survey around the area.
It took the better part of 2003 to complete the surveying of the vegetation, writing up the report and analysing it. The survey team found a significant difference between other areas and Al Maha which had been protected four years prior to survey.
“There was a difference in the species abundance and diversity: more species and a lot more of them.” Simkins explains, “The reason we started with a vegetation survey is that it’s the base of what everything survives on. We’re now in the next vegetation survey which started a couple of months ago.
“We’re going to look at how much has changed in the three-four-year period. The number of plants and animal species, and we’re taking into account how much vegetation is out there to get an idea of the feeding capacity. We need to know how much plant material is available for them to eat in order to sustain the animals within the reserve.
“But you don’t need a vegetation survey to see the improvement that’s been happening.” Another interesting survey DDCR has conducted is on small mammals, and that’s being done with a camera which triggers an infra-red beam.
“The study has helped in realising that a very healthy population of Arabian fox thrives in the reserve. Also spotted are Gordon’s wild cats, even though the population is quite small. The biggest threat to the wild cat in the desert comes from the domestic cat.”
Talking about including people in the conservation projects, Simkins says, “Obviously in a place like Dubai, you face different challenges on how to include local people in conservation projects. Most of the local population don’t require any revenue from tourists. They have their farms out here and have their businesses in Dubai which generate good revenues for them.”
The desert environment is very harsh, and most species are already living on the edge. Small impacts which wouldn’t be noticed in a lush environment could have a huge impact in the desert. Projects such as Al Maha and DDCR provide us with significant lessons on conservation – on how to protect the fragile ecosystems of the desert, not only in the UAE but also across the Middle East.
