Abu Dhabi fund aids international conservation projects to tune of US$1.5m

DUBAI // The Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund handed out more than US$1.5 million (Dh5.51m) to local and international conservation projects last year.

A report released on Wednesday showed the fund supported 185 projects in more than 70 countries. Since 2009 it has distributed $12.4m to more than 1,250 projects in more than 150 countries.

In the UAE last year, the fund gave $12,500 to Emirates Wildlife Society – World Wide Fund for Nature scientists studying a rare dragonfly, Urothemis thomasi. The dragonfly was seen in Fujairah for the first time in more than 30 years.

The fund helped a reptile specialist from Portugal, Raquel Vasconcelos, to study the dragon blood tree gecko on the island of Socotra, off the coast of Yemen. The gecko lives only on the endangered tree.

Socotra, said Ms Vasconcelos, had “an unbelievable landscape and diversity, great forests and unique animals”.

“However, habitat changes are impacting the biodiversity, such as the gecko, which is threatened with disappearance. All of this must be protected,” she said.

Another species to benefit was the Siamese crocodile, in a scheme to move the endangered reptiles from a river basin near the site of a new hydroelectric dam in Cambodia.

The fund provides grants of up to $25,000.