Saving the ghaf tree: a campaign diary

EWS-WWF and Al Fahim believe that the UAE's ghaf (Prosopis cineraria) has attributes that merit its selection as national tree. Our 'save the ghaf tree campaign' shows this has public support.

December 6, 2006, Abu Dhabi: The campaign is inaugurated

With a few clicks of the mouse, H.E. Majid Al Mansouri, Board Member, Emirates Wildlife Society, plants a sapling on the ghaf website.

Another couple of clicks, and Mr. Saeed Jalil Al Fahim, Chairman, Al Fahim Group, plants a second sapling.

A nation-wide campaign to save the ghaf tree is thus launched - a campaign aimed at gaining public support to elect the ghaf as UAE's national tree.

Why campaign for the ghaf? Primarily because the ghaf tree is in grave danger; and it is too precious a resource to lose, tantamount to losing a national heritage and an important component of the UAE's natural history.

The indigenous ghaf (Prosopis cineraria) has been an integral part of the UAE's distinctive desert environment and the civilization that developed here. Ghaf is historically and culturally as valuable as it is ecologically.
Groves of ghaf grow naturally in the desert sands and wide wadis in all emirates (mainly eastern parts of the country); but they are disappearing rapidly. The trees are being overgrazed by an increasing number of camels; heavily lopped for fodder; deprived of groundwater because of excessive extraction to meet farming needs; and cleared to give way to rapidly expanding urban infrastructure. Finally, there is the biggest threat of all - public ignorance about the ghaf and its values.

Scientists have long believed that ghaf be declared national tree of the UAE, and surviving natural ghaf groves protected. Without such measures, the specie's continued survival in the wild is questionable.

We - the EWS-WWF and Al Fahim - pick up the cue. Save the ghaf tree campaign gets going.

Our aim is to raise public awareness about the multiple values of ghaf, raise the tree's profile and reach out to the public to vote for ghaf to be designated national tree. We believe this will help protect the species. For one, because people's votes will strengthen the petition we intend submitting to the authorities. And secondly, if indeed ghaf is accepted as the national tree, it will surely be given special protection through legal, administrative, scientific and fiscal means.

www.savetheghaftree.org is set up to provide comprehensive information about the ghaf. The site's three interactive components - ghaf garden, ballot box and how you can help - gain popularity as news about the website spreads.

The ghaf garden allows individuals to plant virtual saplings in their name and also refer friends to the garden. We commit to planting one real ghaf in the wild for every 10 saplings planted in the garden. The ballot box calls for votes online in favour of ghaf to be selected national tree. The site's 'How you can help' link takes viewers to a ghaf competition, inviting people to register online and actively, creatively, contribute to the ghaf campaign by sending in photographs, posters, sketches, paintings, stories, and letters - all related to the ghaf. (The number of entries received will have touched 122 by the close of the campaign. These will have been judged and winners awarded recognition both on the website and at a special campaign ceremony)

December 7, 2006 - February 28, 2007: The campaign news spreads

The public at large is our target audience. We do, however, have focus groups - decision makers, UAE nationals, desert wanderers, Al Fahim customers, EWS-WWF supporters, AMEInfo subscribers and students. Our message to all is: Log on to www.savetheghaftree.org; get to know the amazing ghaf; plant a sapling in the ghaf garden; cast your vote for the ghaf tree to be made national tree of the UAE; and enter the ghaf competition.

Email shots and direct mail are sent out in 1000s, both mails attractively designed to grab the recipient's interest. AME Info also sends out campaign emails to their subscribers
Posters are distributed to most schools in Abu Dhabi Emirate and also prominently displayed in Choithram supermarkets in all emirates.

A major promotional avenue for our campaign is courtesy of AMEInfo, the popular business portal that has a readership of over 800,000 each month. A banner flashes on the website and a ghaf campaign icon is placed on selected newsletters mailed to AME Info's over 50,000 subscribers.

There are advertisements! Free space generously provided by media agency OMD enables the advertisement to appear in eight popular Arabic and English magazines such as Ahlan and Time Out.

Flyers about the campaign are placed at all Al Fahim outlets for customers to peruse and take away. We organise presentations too, including at a ghaf workshop especially for the Al Fahim Group. There are many others, targeting students.
Media gives the campaign their full support. Extensive coverage provided by both the Arabic and English print media is encouraging as is the interest shown by local radio and television stations.

Post February, 2007: The community responds

The website ghaf garden is a hit! 1000 saplings are planted in some 10 weeks. EWS-WWF and Al Fahim will, in the months ahead, plant 100 ghaf plants in the desert.

Voting in the ballot box of the website continues to this day, touching 2720 votes (August 1, 2007). Voting noticeably perks up after each batch of email shots!

The UAE community's response has been rousing. Ghaf has entered the news, is being discussed on blogs and has suddenly become the favourite tree to plant in parks, along golf courses and even in schools. Authorities (Abu Dhabi Municipality, for instance), starting to sense that all is not well with the ghaf, are reminding and prompting their organisations to protect the ghaf tree.

When media start to follow up a story and request contributions; when researchers write in to offer expert advice; and individuals voluntarily submit pictures illustrating ghaf values - one such was of tall ghaf trees in a car park with caption 'I can give you shade. Please do not remove me' - then we know we have grabbed public attention. And when - like tiny ghafs sprouting from the mother tree's spreading roots - there are campaign spin-offs, you can expect mass awareness.

There are such spin-offs.

The 4th Abu Dhabi Classical Music Festival (April 17 - 26, 2007), held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, is dedicated to making the ghaf national tree of the UAE. This is initiated by Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, Tourism Authority and Authority for Culture and Heritage. Invitation cards, entry passes and advertisements each carry an appeal to vote, besides providing information about this amazing tree. And, during the event, a real ballot box is placed for members of the audience to cast real votes!

In another move initiated by The Motor Town, a community of motor enthusiasts gets member clubs to drive through the UAE's desert in all emirates to locate, map and photograph ghaf trees for our campaign. Some 850 are made aware of the ghaf through this initiative. We even acquire a map of the UAE locating ghaf trees and groves.

And more…Abu Dhabi Men's College students develop a film about the ghaf! What else could we have asked for?

What next?

Public response to the campaign has been terrific. Right now we are lobbying for the ghaf to selected UAE's national tree. Next, we will:
- Acknowledge ghaf campaign supporters at a ghaf festival.
- Plant 100 ghaf plants in the desert.
- Celebrate, if and when ghaf is officially named the national tree.