National Biodiversity Strategy for the State of Kuwait 1998.

This sectoral strategy is a nation-wide policy whose immediate objective is to place biodiversity considerations in the national planning cycle and mainstream development process. It aims at promoting the protection of Kuwait’s biological diversity and fostering the sustainable use of the natural resources for the benefit of the present and future generations.
The document lists a series of basic principles on which is based the Strategy including: the maintenance of the productive capacity of biological systems and resources; the conservation in situ of functioning ecosystems; the moral responsibility shared by all levels of government and all members of society in conservation of biodiversity; equitable and transparent decision processes regarding the allocation or use of indigenous biological resources; protection from the deleterious impacts of introduced alien species; prevention at source of the significant causes for the reduction of biodiversity; the user pays for access to biological resources and the polluter or developer pays for the remediation or the rehabilitation of impacted or damaged ecosystems.
The strategy identifies 5 general measures and 3 specific measures for the national biodiversity conservation. The general measures are: (i) documenting Kuwait’s biodiversity, (ii) planning for Kuwait’s biodiversity, (iii) managing Kuwait’s biodiversity, (iv) using Kuwait’s biological resources, and (v) valuing Kuwait’s biodiversity. The 3 specific measures are: (a) conserving biodiversity through protected areas; (b) biodiversity conservation outside protected areas; and (c) managing specific biological processes which threaten Kuwait’s biodiversity. For all these measures the Strategy indicates a multi-track approach divided in short-term (1-3 years), medium-term (3-5 years) and long-term (5-10 years) to present its agenda for action.
In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the objective of this strategy is to review the present use of all biological resources in Kuwait to determine socio-economic incentives which will foster such use within sustainable limits particularly in key resource-based sectors such as agriculture and fisheries. There is a pressing need to restrict open access and for the efficient allocation of tenure rights to Kuwait's biological resources to ensure their sustainable use (i.e. the maintenance of traditional nomadic pastoralism and native sheep breeds and the establishment of grazing tenure system and long term licenses system to give grazers a stake in rangeland productivity). The sustainable use is required for the management and development of agriculture, rangelands and fisheries. Economic incentives and disincentives to promote biodiversity conservation are considered particularly necessary in those sectors which have a major impact on biodiversity i.e. agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and water supply providing subsidies to clean and environmentally friendly technology.
To increase the resilience of livelihood to disasters, the strategy plans to initiate and implement a national desertification combating strategy with a prime objective of rehabilitating Kuwait's rangelands.
In the sphere of governance, the institutions: 1) will undertake a fundamental review of all national development strategies in terms of their implications for biodiversity conservation; will seek a legal framework that will ensure the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources integrated into Kuwait’s wider social, economic and cultural contexts; 3) indicate the EPA as responsible for co-ordination and over-viewing the implementation of the Strategy; 4) will improve the Kuwaiti society’s awareness of the status and trends of the nation’s ecosystems, alerting them to the impact their own levels of consumption and lifestyles have on biological resources; 5) enact as a priority legislation and regulations for the establishment and management of protected areas also including programs to restore and rehabilitate the local fauna and flora; 6) at the same time enhance efforts to conserve and restore indigenous biological resources where these occur naturally.