Muscat: The Food and Water Security Committee of Majlis Ash’shura on Tuesday hosted Dr Abdullah bin Ali al Amri, Chairman of the Environment Authority and a number of the Authority’s specialists to discuss the phenomenon of desertification.
At the outset of the meeting, Abdullah bin Ahmed al Malik, Chairman of the Food and Water Security Committee, affirmed that the committee considered the necessity of studying the phenomenon of desertification due to its direct adverse impact on the vegetation cover and agricultural and animal production. He added that the committee seeks to review the national plan for combating desertification and evaluate its outputs and the level of progress achieved so far as well as discuss appropriate solutions to the challenges facing the concerned authorities in this regard.
The Environment Authority presented a visual display on the efforts being made to combat desertification and curb drought and land degradation. The visual display indicated that the Sultanate of Oman joined the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 1996, which enabled it to attend the meetings of the parties, review countries’ experiences and take part in training programmes aimed at building qualified national capacities in this field.
Regarding the national plan to combat desertification, the Authority’s specialists indicated that work is underway to update the plan by seeking assistance of an expert in the field of combating desertification. This is in addition to working on proposing national objectives and indicators in coordination and cooperation with the relevant authorities within the framework of unifying national efforts to mitigate the phenomenon of desertification and reduce drought and land degradation.
The meeting also dealt with the national initiative aimed at planting 10 million trees, one of the national efforts to curb the phenomenon of desertification, especially for wild trees. The specialists confirmed that the Authority encourages afforestation and grants free seedlings to be planted and irrigated by members of the community. They spoke about the rehabilitation project in the areas affected by desertification using fog harvesting techniques in Dhofar Governorate and its importance in mitigating desertification.
The members of the committee stressed that overgrazing is one of the most important causes of desertification in the Sultanate of Oman due to the community’s lack of response to the afforestation projects carried out by the Authority. They stressed the importance of raising community awareness to join hands with the concerned authorities to mitigate the phenomenon of desertification.
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