With much of the region's attention focused on the US-Israeli row, Nowruz celebrations and preparations for this weekend's opening of the Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, one Middle East milestone received far too little attention. For nearly two weeks, delegations from up to 175 countries met in Doha to hash out what plants and animals are in danger of extinction and how to protect them from vanishing altogether.
It was the 15th time that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has met, but the first time it was convened in the Middle East. The process to decide measures for curbing or barring trade in threatened species is laborious and scientifically complicated. It also is inherently cultural and political, for one country's endangered species in need of protection is another's source of food or essential export.
Despite the inevitable clashes, all nations have a stake in CITES, not least those in the Gulf. The conservation efforts by those who gathered in Doha are not merely a matter of preserving those stars of the natural firmament - gorillas, elephants and tigers - for the appreciation of future generations. CITES underscores how maintaining biodiversity, especially of marine life, is critical for the food chain and the survival of our own species.