DM honours winners of photography contest

Environment Department of Dubai Municipality on Monday honoured winners and participants in the photography

contest, which was announced on World Day for Migratory Birds. The honouring ceremony was organized on

another environmental occasion; World Day to Combat Desertification, organized this year under the theme ‘Forests

... to keep dry lands working’, as part of the municipality’s observance of various environmental events each year.

Photography competition has been introduced to encourage creativity and artistic talents of staff in support of

environmental protection issues, as well as to introduce participants the characteristics and advantages of the Ras Al

Khor Wildlife Sanctuary.

Eric Olympia Fajut, Alya Adil Al Jumairi and Aria Aladdin Khezri have won first, second and third prizes respectively.

Nizar Ahmed Khadhir, Fuad hamid Al Awadi, Felix Cortes Fullero, Elizier Nelson Vijay, NaserAlDeen Mohammed

Hassan and Anil Kumar Ramdas were honoured as best participants out of 41 entries.

The event came as part of WDCD activities aimed to highlight the problems of desertification, threats faced by the

lands and degradation such as drought, water scarcity. The event is organized to promote public awareness with

regard to international cooperation to combat desertification implementing the International Convention to Combat

Desertification. It also targets to directing officials and policy makers to search for solutions to the challenge of

desertification and arid lands.

The event is to educate the public the role of forests in reducing the risks of desertification and preservation of arid

land degradation.

The activities and events included educational trip for children of the staff to Sharjah Desert Park and to Natural

History and Botanical Museum, in order to familiarize them with natural environments in the UAE, with a focus on

the desert environment, its characteristics and components. A workshop named "Coloured sands of the UAE” was

organized during the visit.

A program to raise awareness in children in collaboration with the Department of Public Parks and Horticulture

was conducted targeting students ranging in age from 4 to 10 years to support educational activities in the summer

centres concerning environment culture. The program also included workshops for children, information on local

plants and its role in preserving the environment and combating desertification, models, and samples of local plants,

picture gallery of local plants, desert environment workshops, studio for children and distribution of educational

pamphlets.

In addition, a symposium on World Day to Combat Desertification, on Friday was organized in collaboration with

EIEF group in the City Hall of Dubai Municipality. It included an introduction program, a demonstration of forests

and desertification, a short film, workshop and lecture about desertification , ‘Forest Panel’ on which audience draw

trees, and ‘Human Tree’ formed by all participants in shape of a tree.