(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)
''All staff at the Expo are trained not to harm or endanger wildlife. We rehome anything that will be harmed due to the construction. Others stay on the site and we take extra care to protect them.”
Since the Expo construction began in 2016 at the Dubai South District, Storey said, hundreds of wildlife — including desert foxes, snakes, deers, gazelles and Arabian hares, deer and cats living on the site — have either been rehomed or their habitats preserved.
''We have rehomed doves and hares with their babies. We have rehomed bower sand snakes, spiny-tailed lizards which are on the list of endangered wildlife. We found them and removed them to safer places in the desert.”
Storey said the beehives that the sustainability team adopted two years ago have now been harvested and bottled.
''We have harvested nearly a hundred jars of high-quality honey from the beehives, and they are now bottled into specially designed Expo jars.”
The beehives were removed by a complex operation, which involved sugar solution being sprayed on the bees to temporarily stop them from flying. Inside the hive were Apis mellifera honeybees, which are not native to the UAE. They were relocated to the Beekeepers Association’s Bee Garden at The Sustainable City in Dubai.
The official said the Dubai Expo is aiming to deliver one of the most sustainable of World Expos, and that means sustainability is ingrained in everything they are doing. That includes preserving the ecological diversity of the place.
One of the key sustainability goals at Expo is to protect the existing ecology both within and outside project areas, and to enhance biodiversity and ecology. ''One of the reasons why we have a teeming fauna and flora is because our landscape is managed without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers.”
Despite the massive construction happening onsite with thousands of workers rushing to meet handover deadlines before the exposition officially opens on October 1, Expo is a safe haven for birds and insects.
For instance, a crow’s nest near the main Expo office has been cordoned off with a sign board saying ‘Caution, nesting crows. Protect your head and stay safe.’
''There were complaints that the crow is attacking people. But we decided to stay off the crow and let it nest. Now, every day, I get reports about the baby crows,” said Storey.
''People find caterpillars eating into the leaves where we do landscaping. But I don’t care. Let them eat the leaves and turn into butterflies. The idea is not to make everything look perfect but real,” said Storey.
Anjana Sankar Anjana Sankar is a UAE-based journalist chasing global stories of conflict, migration and human rights. She has reported from the frontlines of the wars in Yemen and Syria and has extensively written on the refugee crisis in Bangladesh, Iraq and Europe. From interviewing Daesh militants to embedding with the UAE army in Yemen, and covering earthquakes, floods, terrorist attacks and elections, she has come out scathe-free from the most dangerous conflict zones of the world. Riding on over 14 years of experience, Anjana currently is an Assistant Editor with Khaleej Times and leads the reporting team. She often speaks about women empowerment on her Facebook page that has 40,000 plus followers.
Click/tap here to subscribe to Khaleej Times news alerts on Telegram. MENAFN21062021000049011007ID1102321122
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.