Falconry — the training and use of falcons for hunting — is one of the most important traditional practices in the United Arab Emirates and in the wider Arabian Peninsula. It was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010 as part of a multinational nomination, and it remains a living practice rather than a museum display.
The practice
The traditional quarry was the houbara bustard, a large ground bird, and hunting took place in winter when the birds migrated through the region. The relationship between falconer and bird is built by patient conditioning: the bird is trained to return to a lure, to accept the presence of humans and dogs, and eventually to hunt. Falcons were historically trapped during migration rather than bred, though captive breeding is now widespread.
The birds most used are the peregrine falcon and the saker falcon. A trained falcon is a valued animal, and the vocabulary, equipment and etiquette around falconry — the glove, the hood, the perch, the lure, the traditional leather accessories — are handed down within families.
Change in the twentieth century
Falconry declined sharply with urbanisation and with the collapse of the traditional desert economy, and by the later twentieth century the houbara population was under severe pressure. Since the 1980s the practice has been actively revived and reorganised: clubs, festivals and competitions were established, falcon hospitals opened, and hunting is now regulated and largely confined to designated areas.
Conservation
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan took a personal interest in falconry and in the houbara, and the programmes begun under him are associated with the recovery of the Arabian oryx and with sustained investment in bustard conservation and captive breeding. Because the sustainability of falconry depends on the sustainability of its quarry, the sport and the conservation effort are now closely linked in institutional terms.