Welcome
Welcome speech from the Deputy Chairman of Emirates Falconers Club
Emiratis' interaction with the desert has been always fruitful and constructive throughout history. On the UAE golden sands, they wrote bright pages of history acquiring patience, persistence, discernment and hope from its hot sun and clear sky.
The vast desert has never been an obstacle in the way of the Emiratis. They crossed it, explored its mysteries, exploited its resources and practiced various and exciting desert-related sports, including falconry that has been a favorite game for ancient civilizations. Through the ages, Arabs practiced falconry and left permanent mark on this sport.
One of the best eras for this sport was the era of the pioneering falconer Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, RIP, who used his passion for falconry to enrich this sport with his invaluable experiences and wide expertise and deepen its course in the authentic national heritage and the broader human heritage. The support offered by our visionary leadership to falconers is a continuation of such approach and a new page in the book of success written by the United Arab Emirates with the purpose of preserving and passing falconry down to next generations. One of the most significant pages of this book was the registration of falconry in UNESCO as a living human heritage, maintaining its sustainability through protecting falcons and quarries in their natural habitats, propagating and looking after them and enacting laws and legislation to protect them and prevent their extinction.
These achievements are still seen as the landmarks of such a long journey. However, they will have an entirely new dimension with the establishment of Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Falconry and Desert Physiognomy School (FDPS) that will be inaugurated as a part of our wise leadership’s vision for protecting our national heritage. We hope that the FDPS would employ its curricula, trainers, educational programs and practical applications to equip learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to become qualified falconers. We also hope that the school would provide its members with the information and experiences that would enable them to read the terrains of the desert, use stars in navigation, monitor weather condition and wild plants and track traces of passers-by. These fields together are called desert physiognomy which had been fully mastered by our ancestors.
We hope to achieve the desired goals and preserve the sustainability of our heritage to promote the process of building and development. Good luck to our school.
His Excellency Mohammed bin Ahmad Al Bawardi
