Amin Abbas

DUBAI: Majid Ali Al Mansouri, Secretary General of the Emirates Falconers Club (EFC), and Hiroshi Fujii, Representative Director of INPEX-JODCO, Senior Managing Executive Officer and Senior Vice President, in Abu Dhabi Projects, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for promoting and supporting the programs of friendship, student exchange and cultural cooperation between the Emirati and Japanese falconers.

This has been in presence of Takayuki Ueda, the president and CEO of “INPEX”, which is a leading company in the field of development and production of oil and gas projects, and Toshiaki Kitamura, chairman of the company.

As per the MOU and in cooperation between the UAE – Japanese sides, participation in falconry activities and events will be carried out. This is in addition to introducing the goals of preserving human cultural heritage, preserving authentic traditions, and promoting sustainable hunting under the supervision of experts and specialists in falconry from both countries.

Japanese students will be able to train and learn about the traditions of genuine Arabian falconry at Mohammed bin Zayed Falconry and Desert Physiognomy School, which was established in 2016 under the directions of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler’s representative in Al Dhafra region and Chairman of the Emirates Falconers Club. This will be the first world-pioneering platform specialized in teaching the art of Arabian falconry, physiognomy, and desert traditions.

Furthermore, Emirati students and falconers will be welcomed at the Japanese “SAWA” Falconry School to learn about old Japanese falconry traditions as they are reflected in a particular collection of tools, schools, and practices strongly rooted in Japan’s cultural heritage.

On this occasion, Majed Ali Al Mansouri, Secretary General of the Emirates Falconers Club, acknowledged that the UAE and Japan had had good connections for more than a half-century. “Today these ties move beyond the stage of cooperation to become a strategic partnership that has entered a new stage in recent years. Cultural heritage projects are one of these collaborations,” he noted.

On the occasion of signing the Memorandum of Understanding with the Emirates Falconers Club, the Japanese delegation toured the Mohammed bin Zayed Falconry and Desert Physiognomy School, where members of the delegation praised the efforts and achievements of Abu Dhabi and the UAE in preserving heritage and protecting wildlife through sustainable hunting, expressing their admiration for the school’s programs which organize Specialized training courses in falconry for all age groups to teach them the arts of Arab falconry, and educate young generation to preserve authentic traditions.

It is worth noting that the Emirates Falconers Club was founded in September 2001 with the goal of raising awareness about the ethics of falconry and its true traditions, developing sustainable hunting methods, and preserving falconry as a genuine Arab heritage and historical legacy worthy of pride in all of its characteristics and benefits. For the past 22 years, the club has been successful at the regional and international levels in spreading awareness of the worth of falconry as a common human art and legacy that unites falconers from within and outside the UAE together. The Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition, the largest of its kind in the Middle East and Africa, has been organized by the club since 2003.

The club has organized many of the most important events supporting sustainable hunting and preserving cultural heritage over the years, the most notable of which is the International Festival of Falconry in Abu Dhabi in 2011, 2014, and 2017, which is a global forum for falconers from different continents attended by over 800 falconers from nearly 90 countries.

INPEX CORPORATION is Japan’s largest exploration and production (E&P) company, and is currently involved in several major projects across multiple continents, including the Ichthys LNG Project in Australia as Operator. By thoroughly making its oil and gas business cleaner while expanding its 5 net zero business areas, INPEX aims to provide a stable supply of diverse and clean energy sources including oil, natural gas, hydrogen and renewables as a pioneer in energy transformation.