Ministry of Environment Inaugurates Sea Turtles 2024 Nesting Season
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change today inaugurated the 2024 nesting season for sea turtles and organized a cleaning and rehabilitation campaign at Fuwairit Beach, in the presence of HE Minister of Environment and Climate Change Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie.
The campaign, overseen by the Wildlife Development Department, involved officials from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, representatives from participating entities, as well as 300 volunteers who conducted the cleaning and rehabilitation of the beach.
HE the Minister of Environment and Climate Change conducted a tour to inspect the environmental systems of the designated area for the endangered Hawksbill turtle protection project. He also reviewed the progress related to the protection and conservation of terrestrial and marine environments in the region.
In his statements to mark the occasion, HE the Minister emphasized the importance of the Hawksbill Sea turtle protection project, initiated by the ministry since 2003 in collaboration with Qatar Petroleum and Qatar University. He pointed out that over the past five years, the project has released more than 50,000 young turtles, contributing to the increase in their numbers in the Qatari marine environment.
Regarding biodiversity protection efforts in the country, His Excellency said that the richness of the local environment constitutes a national heritage that must be sustained and preserved for future generations. And that the ministry is in the final stages of launching a biodiversity database in Qatar aimed at preserving biological diversity data and mapping the important biodiversity sites in the country.
His Excellency added that the project includes establishing a knowledge management platform that allows partners and decision-makers to benefit from the database information in national development and biodiversity efforts, as part of Qatar’s digital government strategy 2023 2025.
On the sidelines of the nesting season opening, HE the Minister of Environment and Climate Change honored the participants in the campaign and the opening of the turtle nesting season. The list of participants honored included Qatar Energy, Qatar University, Red Crescent, Al Thakhira Youth Center, and Sea Shore Company.
In a parallel context, Dr Ibrahim Abdul Latif Al Muslimani, Assistant Undersecretary for Natural Reserves Affairs, pointed out that the hawksbill turtle protection project is one of the pioneering projects in preserving biodiversity in the country, as the project contributed to increasing the numbers of these creatures and avoiding the risk of extinction, noting that the risk of the disappearance of a component of the environment or the extinction of its organisms, which leads to an imbalance in the food chain, which in turn causes severe damage to the local environment.
Mohamed al-Khanji, director of the MoECC’s Wildlife Development, said that the ministry gives great importance to the protection of biodiversity in the Qatari environment by launching projects and initiatives based on scientific research and the use of modern technology. Noting that the stages of the turtle protection project relied on modern science in taking genetic samples from the turtles and monitoring them through the placement of tracking devices. This contributed to treating many injured turtles and releasing them back into the sea.
During these days of each year, groups of hawksbill turtles go to nest on the northern beaches of the country, which include the beaches of Fuwairit, Ras Laffan, Al Maruna, Al Ghariya, Al Huwaila, Al Jassasiya, and Al Mafjar, as well as the islands of Umm Tais, Ras Rukn, and Sharawah, Halul. The season is from early April to late June, and the hatching process takes place two months after the nesting process.
