Human Resources Development and Institutional Arrangements for Managing Coastal Resources and Environments in the UAE, From Concept to Practice

Abstract

The coastal area of UAE contains some of the world's richest ecosystems including extensive oil reservoirs, coral reefs and mangrove forests. UAE in fact faces an acute shortage of personnel having the necessary knowledge, technical skills and managerial capability to meet the new challenges which involve the application of integrated approaches to formulation and implementation of plans for the sustainable development of coastal and marine areas. This paper is focus on the following two objectives: Human resources development and capacity building for planning and managing of coastal areas and identify elements of environmental training strategies and environmental master plan. Increasing awareness for the needs for coastal zone management should starts with policy-maker, decision-makers and planners. It is recommended that before the initiated training programmes, careful analysis for the present and future needs along with analysis of the present training programme, either locally, regional or internationally should be done. On the other hand, evaluation of the current training programmes is inevitable as well as training should be target and at different levels.