Closing 2025: A Year of Science, Community, and Stewardship

As 2025 comes to a close, we reflect on a year shaped by growth, collaboration, and a deepened commitment to protecting Bahrain’s natural heritage. At Nuwat, this year reaffirmed our purpose: to generate meaningful science, bring people closer to nature, and translate knowledge into action.

On the research front, 2025 marked significant progress. We contributed to advance the Animating the Carbon Cycle project in partnership with Yale University, the Global Rewilding Alliance, and IFAW, exploring how dugongs enhance carbon capture within seagrass ecosystems to inform Bahrain’s climate commitments. Alongside this, FinSight Bahrain completed its first full research year, combining BRUV surveys, fish market surveys, citizen science, and environmental DNA sampling to establish Bahrain’s first molecular biodiversity baselines for sharks and rays.

In addition, this year saw important scientific milestones. Nuwat presented its collaborative research on biodiversity data diplomacy, supported by the Smithsonian Institution, at the Living Data Conference 2025 in Colombia, with the manuscript related to this research being currently under peer review. In parallel, we published our research article on Bahrain’s oyster ecology making it the first paper to be published on the country’s oyster beds in 20 years, strengthening the evidence base on Bahrain’s marine ecosystems and supporting informed conservation and management decisions.

Education and community engagement remained central to our work. Early in the year, Nuwat was invited to serve as judgets at STEMX Bahrain, supporting and celebrating the next generation of scientific thinkers. We also launched new short courses including our environmental career programme, alongside immersive learning experiences such as Harvesting Wisdom, designed to reconnect participants with Bahrain’s natural heritage. Throughout the year, we continued to support highschool students in developing and leading their own research projects, including mentoring students as they took their first steps into scientific inquiry.

In November and December 2025, Nuwat delivered custom-designed nature immersion experiences for both school students and corporate teams, including St. Christopher’s School and BNP Paribas. These experiences replaced classrooms, offices and boardrooms with coastlines, agricultural lands and offshore islands, offering participants hands-on learning rooted in ecology, culture, and citizen science. Through field exploration, storytelling, and data collection, participants connected with Bahrain’s natural heritage in ways that inspire care, responsibility, and action.

Across research, education, and policy engagement, 2025 reinforced a core belief: people protect what they understand, and understanding begins with connection. As we look ahead to 2026, we carry forward stronger partnerships, richer datasets, and a renewed sense of purpose. We are deeply grateful to the scientists, students, citizen scientists, educators, partners, and supporters who made this year possible.

Together, we continue working towards creating a world where people and nature thrive and live in harmony.