Some areas in Qatar show ‘excellent signs’ of vegetation recovery

Ziziphus nummularia or the Sidra tree. The Qatari wild variety grows widespread in the country, especially in the south. Normally it forms bushes and sometimes trees. Cistanche tubulosa (foreground, centre), a parasitic plant growing on the roots of Tetraena qatarensis, close to the palm groves in Umm Bab.

By Bonnie James/Deputy News Editor

There are excellent signs of vegetation recovery, especially of palatable plant species, at some areas in Qatar whereas the flora and vegetation of most of the desert rangelands and coastal areas are in an extremely poor condition, a Unesco exploration has revealed.

“The damage has been caused due to decades of overgrazing by camels above the ecological carrying capacity while coastal development and urban encroachment into the natural ecosystems have already caused serious habitat loss,” Dr Benno Boer, ecological sciences adviser for Arab Region, told Gulf Times.

The findings are based on a recent survey undertaken by the expert, based at the Unesco Doha Office, who criss-crossed Qatar to assist Pergola Contracting & Greenhouses to collect and multiply native plant species for scientific, gardening and landscaping purposes.

Unesco is supporting Pergola in locating the plant species inside and outside Qatar, and assist in the collection of wild plant germplasm.

The overall long-term aim is to make a positive contribution to the ex situ biodiversity conservation of the flora of Qatar. This is a significant contribution to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 (Environmental Sustainability), Target B (reduce biodiversity loss), as well as towards the Convention on Biological Diversity, with a special view to article 9 (Ex-situ conservation).

Unesco’s immediate aim is to support Pergola to locate, identify and collect a maximum number of indigenous and native plant species known to occur inside Qatar. The plants concerned are exclusively those species found to grow and reproduce successfully in the natural and urban environments without direct fresh-water irrigation.

Unesco also collected the geographical locations of the indigenous plant species, so they can be revisited by botanists, horticulturists, landscape-architects, plant-breeders and others in the future.

“Some areas with livestock exclusion showed good signs of recovery, for example the area in the west of the Dukhan – Umm Bab Highway, as well as an area in Sumaisma,” Dr Boer explained.

If Panicum turgidum grasses dominate the area in the west of the Dukhan – Umm Bab Highway, the road-sides between Shahaniyah and Rawdat al Farras showed good rejuvenation of Acacia trees, which has been observed for the first time in several years, due to the absence of grazing camels.

“Eventually, the correct balance of rangeland vegetation and number of grazing camels should be identified, and camels reintroduced accordingly, with less numbers in areas of overgrazing,” he suggested while pointing out that camels are of immense importance to the Arab region as they are an integral part of the landscape and cultural heritage.

Many of the areas visited were in very poor conditions in terms of species richness, biomass, standing crop, vegetation cover, plant density, and mainly with thorny, halophytic (salt-tolerant), or poisonous plant species.

The palatable species were low in numbers. This is believed to be due to the naturally prevailing hyper-arid climatic conditions, and accelerated through decades of over-grazing above the ecological carrying capacity of dry desert rangelands.

At least 164 plant species were found, some of which have great gardening and landscaping value. Nearly 400 plant species in total have ever been recorded to occur in Qatar.

“With these numbers in mind we can say that we made a very good start for the ex situ conservation of the flora of Qatar, the MDG 7, as well as to the UN Convention of Biological Diversity,” the expert said while suggesting that the signs of vegetation recovery should be studied by the universities concerned.

This is of great importance, not only to identify the balanced number of camels that should roam the rangelands, but also to enhance biodiversity conservation, to reduce wind-born soil-erosion, and with it the amount of dust-particles in the atmosphere.

“Once the vegetation cover exceeds 8% of the soil, there is basically no more erosion. Currently we have in most places only less than 1%. It will also enhance the primary productivity of the rangelands, the structural and feeding habitat for wildlife, and allow for the re-introduction of captive-bred locally rare or extinct wildlife species at carrying capacity.

“This includes the desert hare, spiny tailed lizard, various species of gazelle, and the important houbara bustard. This in turn will allow for the development of recreational, photographic, and educational outdoor tourism,” Dr Boer added.