Omani Environment Day which falls on January 8 every year is a national occasion that pays attention to the diverse environment of Oman, including the conducting of several events that aim at raising community awareness of the importance of the environment which is a healthy lung. In this context, the Government of the Sultanate is making great efforts represented in many public institutions, such as the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs and the National Field Research Centre for Environmental Conservation of the Diwan of Royal Court with a view to the advancement of the numerous and diverse environment.
Among those efforts is the expansion in environmental monitoring and its impact in the Sultanate due to industrial growth and increased tourism projects. Programs are being conducted to update the national strategy for the protection of the Omani environment and to develop the environmental policies of the state and plans to promote biodiversity, the continued cooperation between the Sultanate with the United Nations in projects related to climate change, the protection of the ozone layer, to improve efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs has implemented many of the protection projects, most importantly the monitoring of air and noise quality agreement implemented in the Governorate of Muscat through the installation of two central stations for monitoring pollutants from car exhausts, measurement of noise and air quality levels and the establishment of a mobile unit to monitor the air quality in order to maintain air quality and follow-up crushers and quarries with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and evaluate these projects so as not to cause harm to the environment.
Projects are being implemented to build facilities and sites for the disposal of non-hazardous solid waste and projects of stations to transfer non-hazardous solid wastes and other associated waste management projects in the Sultanate and in coordination with the Oman Environmental Services Holding Company.
To preserve the vegetation of the Sultanate, a map of land degradation in the mountains of the Governorate Dhofar, East and North the Governorate of A'Sharqiyah, and Al Jabal Al Akhdar is currently put to highlight the sites affected by desertification to rehabilitate them.
The National Field Research Centre for Environmental Conservation of the Diwan of Royal Court identifies and develops the field research projects to protect and sustain the environment of the Sultanate and to preserve it, to encourage academic institutions and relevant civil society, researchers and interested persons to conduct the field of environmental studies and outstanding scientific field research and to ensure their commitment to the scientific method and to publish them in refereed scientific journals inside and outside the Sultanate.
It is worth mentioning that the Sultanate celebrated Omani Environment Day for the first time in January of 1997, based on the directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said to be a motive for all the good and sincere efforts and energies exerted by all sectors (government, private and civil) of Omani society, to provide protection and conservation of natural resources.