Bahrain receives an invitation from France

Kingdom of Bahrain has received an invitation from the friendly French Republic to attend the Third World Marine Protected Areas Congress planned to be held from October 21st to 27th between the city of Marseilles and the island of Corsica. The invitation came in the form of a letter raised to the Personal Representative of HM the King, and the Chairman of the Supreme Council for Environment, His Highness Shaikh Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, from the French Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development and Energy, Philip Martin. The letter was handed by the First Counselor of the French Embassy Jean Paul Ghoneim to the Deputy CEO of the Council at his residence in Bait Al-Tojjar, Dr. Mohammed Mubarak Bin Dinah. The invitation comes in the framework of the keenness of the two friendly countries to protect the marine environments, and their inspiration to cooperate in many ecological issues in general. On this occasion, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Environment sent an official delegation to attend the mentioned Congress led by CEO Dr. Adel Khalifa Al Zayani, in addition to the Acting Director of the Biodiversity Management, Abdul Qader Saeed Khamis, and Director of the CEO Office, Khalid Faris Al Qatami. During the meeting, Dr. Bin Dinah expressed his thanks to the friendly French Republic for its kind invitation, praising the support of the Congress for the development goals launched by the United Nations, including the strategy for the protection and recovery of wildlife around the world in the period from 2011 to 2020. The Congress aims at establishing an integrated global network at the environmental level, to be effectively and distinctively managed at the level of preserved offshore locations. For his part, the French Counselor Jean Paul Ghoneim praised the keenness of Kingdom of Bahrain to establish and develop reserves, and its commitment to enrich the natural species and protect them with local legislation on one hand, and be under the umbrella of the international environmental convention on the other hand. The French Counselor highlighted the French government’s inspiration to record beneficial recommendations at the national, regional and international levels in this Congress, to participate in activating a network of effective means to identify and manage the marine protected areas, in order to maintain the ecological balance of the world and to continue development of maritime activities and coastal development. For his part, the Acting Director of Biodiversity Management Abdul Qader Khamis expressed his happiness with the main issues addressed by the Congress including the marine protected areas, the cultivated coastal areas, and the inland waters, asserting their importance for the food, health and economic security for states. He pointed out the importance of the Northern Herat Reserve in the regional waters for the Kingdom which is about 1300 square kilometers.