ABU DHABI // The Bu Tinah shoals, a tiny archipelago off the coast of Abu Dhabi, have made it into the final round of a competition to be named one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
They are among 28 sites shortlisted in the New7Wonders of Nature poll, which started with more than 440 participants from around the world.
The other three finalists in the islands category are the Maldives, the Galapagos in Ecuador and South Korea's Jeju Island.
The competition also focuses on landscapes, ice formations, mountains, volcanoes, caves, rock formations, valleys, forests, national parks, nature reserves, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and seascapes, grouped into seven categories.
The announcement of the top 28 was made yesterday in Zurich, the home of the New7Wonders Foundation, the non-profit organisation behind the competition.
"I am thrilled," said Dr Thabit Zahran al Abdessalaam, director of marine biodiversity management at the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) and one of the officials behind the Bu Tinah bid.
"It makes me proud to be part of this exercise."
Home to birds such as the flamingo, as well as turtles, dolphins, dugongs and a host of other creatures, Bu Tinah is a cluster of low-lying islands surrounded by coral reefs and seagrass beds.
The main island has a sheltered lagoon opening to the south, lined with mature mangroves.
The area is part of the Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in the country, with a territory of more than 4,000 square kilometres.
The archipelago is a core zone within the protected area, meaning fishing is prohibited and only a limited number of supervised visitors is allowed.
Besides flamingos, Bu Tinah is also visited by a number of rare migratory birds such as the Socotra cormorant and some species of tern. The area is one of the country's best places for dugongs - large but timid marine mammals that feed on seagrass. Some 600 out of the estimated 3,000 dugongs in the country live in the waters around Bu Tinah.
The archipelago is important for turtles, too. Its waters are foraging grounds for the two species of turtles most common in the UAE, while the shoals' sandy banks provide nesting habitat for the hawksbill turtle.
There are also healthy coral reef habitats with as many as 16 species of coral recorded in the area.
Candidates in the campaign are natural sites not created by nor significantly altered by humans for aesthetic reasons.
The poll started with more than 440 entries, out of which 77 were chosen by internet voting.
A panel of experts, led by Prof Federico Mayor, former secretary general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), outlined the top 28 locations, chosen on criteria including beauty and ecological significance. They also wanted the finalists to be evenly distributed between countries and continents.
Voting for the new seven wonders of nature will continue throughout 2010 with the winners being declared the following year.
"We now have to come up with a different strategy to campaign and make Bu Tinah more noticeable," said Dr al Abdessalaam.
The New7Wonders Foundation was founded in 2001 by the Swiss-born Canadian filmmaker, author and adventurer Bernard Weber.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
