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A group of over 50 UAE residents came out on their motorbikes in full support of the Vote Bu Tinah Campaign in an effort to increase awareness and build support for the campaign. The group took the initiative to tour the key malls in Abu Dhabi City to encourage shoppers to vote for Bu Tinah and support the UAE’s bid for the Island to become one of the New7Wonders (N7W) of Nature. The N7W competition will draw to a close on November 11, 2011.
The tour included four key sites along the bikers’ route. They started by gathering at Marina Mall, actively engaged members of the public and mall goers to vote for Bu Tinah. Moving on, the bikers then visited Khalidiyah Mall, Mushrif Mall and Abu Dhabi Mall, concluding their special mission by early evening.
Fozeya Al Mahmoud, Manager Environment Education, Environment Awareness Sector of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD), said: "We are grateful to this group of bikers for taking the initiative to plan such a community-engaging event and for supporting this national campaign. Since we launched the Vote Bu Tinah campaign, we’ve seen the community come together and reaffirm its commitment to our natural heritage by attending Bu Tinah events, joining its Facebook Fan pages, sharing our YouTube videos, visiting the popular ’Bu Tinah Experience’ dome on the Abu Dhabi Corniche and of course, voting for it to become one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
"We are at a critical stage of this competition. A vote now for Bu Tinah is an affirmation that we are proud of our natural heritage, that we want future generations to enjoy it too, and that we’re all working together to conserve it. We can all help make Bu Tinah officially one of the world’s top nature sites. It takes less than 10 seconds to vote by SMS and that vote will be a vote for conservation forever," she added.
Al Mahmoud stressed that people have only 13 days left to vote. People in the UAE can show their support for Bu Tinah by sending an SMS with the word ’BuTinah’ to 3888, as many times as they like. Supporters in the UAE and around the world can also take less than two minutes to place a vote online on www.butinah.ae Ali Makki, an Emirati biker backing this campaign, said: "I’m proud to be able to support this national campaign and help mobilize the general public to vote for Bu Tinah to become one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. It’s our responsibility as residents and citizens alike to tell the world about our natural heritage and our commitment to care for it. This is our humble way of giving back to our country and supporting this important campaign." Bu Tinah, located around 130 km west of Abu Dhabi, is a unique island and a core area of the Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve - the first marine biosphere reserve in the region. Being a protected area, it is not open for public visits. This helps its inhabitants live and flourish in peace. In spite of the harsh temperatures and salinity, its habitats and species, including mangroves, dolphins and the Socotra Cormorant bird, continue to thrive, making the island an important location and living lab for climate change studies. The Island is also home to one of the world’s densest populations of dugongs, a gentle seal-like mammal that grazes on seagrass.
The ’Vote Bu Tinah’ campaign was launched under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of EAD. The Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), a master developer of major cultural, residential and tourism destinations in Abu Dhabi, is the campaign’s Platinum Sponsor.
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