Doha: The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) held a joint coordination meeting with the Ministry of Defense, represented by the Environmental Directorate, as part of the action plan of Qatar's coral reef protection and restoration program.
According to Qatar News Agency, the meeting was chaired by the Assistant Undersecretary for Protection and Natural Reserves Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Abdul Latif Al Muslimani, with representatives of the Ministry of Defense, including the Directorate of Environment, Qatari Amiri Naval Forces, and Qatari Joint Special Forces in attendance.
The meeting addressed the technical and regulatory aspects related to the execution of the second phase of this program in the implementation of the Third National Development Strategy (NDS3) 2024-2030, which aims to restore 30% of degraded environmental habitats, in pursuit of realizing the Qatar National Vision 2030, within the MoECC's program aimed at protecting the marine environment and biodiversity.
The key objectives of this phase include cleaning the Fasht areas of sea urchins and transplanting coral reefs from healthy donor sites to regions suffering from weak coral coverage, in addition to monitoring and maintaining the transplanted reefs using scientific methods to ensure their stability in the new locations.
In addition, the second phase aspires to bolster coral coverage and biodiversity across the affected sites, targeting a growth rate between three and fivefold, while concurrently advancing environmental awareness through conducting outreach campaigns and the training of volunteer divers to contribute to inspection and ecological maintenance operations.
In October 2024, the MoECC finalized the first phase, which entailed conducting a field survey across 17 coral reef sites within Qatar's territorial waters, culminating in the documentation of newly identified coral species, the designation of healthy donor zones, and the selection of prospective recipient sites deemed suitable for transplantation, thereby laying the scientific groundwork for the launch of the second phase.