Al Ain Zoo ended the Earth Hour celebrations that lasted for three days that included a unique initiative. Staff and visitors were encouraged to pledge to preserve our planet by hanging their wishes and commitments on the "Tree of Pledges" that welcomed visitors as soon as they entered the main gate of the Zoo.

Visitors arriving at Al Ain Zoo were welcomed by the event organisers and were provided with a set of awareness facts, educational messages and cards to write their pledges and hang them on the tree. Gifts and Ghaf tree seeds were shared to channel the Year of Tolerance with a new concept presented by the Zoo to deal with nature consciously by rationalizing its resources and using friendly materials to preserve nature and the Earth.

Omar Yousef Al Blooshi, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications at the Al Ain Zoo, said, "We chose the tree as a symbol of our social and institutional responsibility towards the Earth. It is the priority and message of the Zoo to preserve the environment and protect nature. Gifting the Ghaf tree seeds to the visitors is a new idea that we have introduced through which we gave tolerance a greater dimension that extends to helping preserve our planet and its great wealth that we enjoy."

He added, "It is necessary to involve the community and raise awareness in an interactive way to help them always remember the importance of taking part in preserving nature and rationalizing the wealth of the planet. Celebrating for one hour is a symbolic behavioral initiative that represents behaviors that we all should continually do. The Earth is being subjected to unregulated consumption and depletion which calls for concentrating our efforts and creating new means to reach all segments of society."

The protection of the environment and nature conservation are within the messages and priorities for which Al Ain Zoo was established more than 50 years ago by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The Zoo started taking action in protecting the environment and endangered animals in limited numbers of Oryx and Houbara Bustard. Today the number of endangered animals around the world reached 4,000.

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