It was established by the late, God willing, the founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as this was the first place to be legally designated for protection in the emirate and was included in the lists of the Ramsar Convention for Wetlands in 2013. The land of this reserve was salt flats (sabkha), before To be transformed into natural and artificial lakes that enable many important wildlife species to thrive in Abu Dhabi. In 2018, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) included it in its green list of protected areas and nature conservation areas in the world, as the first reserve in this region to receive the honor of this recognition from the International Union for Nature.