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About Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD)

Established in 1996, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) is committed to protecting and enhancing air quality, groundwater as well as the biodiversity of our desert and marine ecosystem. By partnering with other government entities, the private sector, NGOs and global environmental agencies, we embrace international best practice, innovation and hard work to institute effective policy measures. We seek to raise environmental awareness, facilitate sustainable development and ensure environmental issues remain one of the top priorities of our national agenda.

About World Seagrass Association (WSA)

The World Seagrass Association (WSA) is a global network of scientists, coastal managers, and stakeholders committed to the research, protection, and management of the world’s seagrasses. The association supports training and information exchange and raises global awareness of seagrass science and environmental management issues.

The idea for the association has its genesis in a keynote address by Professor Ronald Phillips at the Third International Seagrass Biology Workshop in 1998. The keynote brought up the seagrass objectives defined in the International Decade of Ocean Exploration in the 1970s, and a key issue raised during the first two International Seagrass Biology Workshops held in Kominato, Japan and Perth, Western Australia: The decline of seagrass habitats and the negative environmental impact if this is not mitigated.

The Association recognised that as experts in the field, there was a need for closer global collaboration to reduce knowledge gaps and reverse the course of global decline in seagrass habitats. Since then, WSA has started new initiatives and facilitated closer collaboration through supporting the International Seagrass Biology Workshop series, the development of the first Global Atlas of Seagrass, and most recently, spearheading an effort to develop a UN-recognized World Seagrass Day, in order to heighten global awareness on these important ecosystems.

Today we organise to answer the call to action made by the Bolinao Declaration and offer expertise to all who are interested in learning about seagrasses and how our actions can help us to better understand, manage, and conserve these vital components of our coastal oceans.