Under the slogan "Our Land, Our Future," the United Arab Emirates will join countries around the world tomorrow to celebrate World Environment Day 2024, boasting a track record of achievements and initiatives that have bolstered its leadership in land restoration and combating desertification. The issue of combating desertification has received significant attention in the UAE, where it has been one of the pillars of the country's approach to environmental protection, preserving resources, and ensuring sustainability. The celebration of World Environment Day serves to reaffirm the UAE's pioneering role in environmental conservation, which is fundamentally an inherited and authentic culture supported by legislation and systems established by the government to raise awareness of its importance. The UAE views environmental preservation as a strategic matter grounded in scientific, social, cultural, and economic principles.
Every year on June 5, World Environment Day is celebrated as a global occasion aimed at raising awareness of the importance of environmental protection and improvement, with World Environment Day 2024 calling for collective action to protect our planet and ensure a greener future. This year's theme is linked to three main goals of the Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 6 aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; Goal 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; and Goal 15 seeks to protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.
The UAE, which has desert covering about 80% of its land area, has adopted a proactive vision and wise policy to address the issue of desertification and its associated challenges. This involves preserving the desert environment and its resources and biodiversity while also mitigating and addressing factors leading to land desertification. The country joined the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 1998 and has developed the National Strategy to Combat Desertification 2030, which aims to ensure healthy ecosystems and sustainable land use to counteract the effects of climate change, land degradation, and drought.
