ALULA: Though Saudi Arabia is dwelling to a wealth of ecosystems, from its coastal mangroves and coral reefs to its high-altitude forests and plush oases, the Kingdom is probably greatest identified for its deserts.

Nonetheless, these landscapes, that are quick changing into well-liked with outside adventurers, are dwelling to a exceptional array of animals, which inhabited the area lengthy earlier than the arrival of people.

Regardless of the hardiness of those animals, given the harshness of their setting, the encroachment of people into these pristine habitats is elevating issues amongst conservationists.

“The fast development in vacationer flows in current a long time has been accompanied by diversification, each geographically, and by way of tourism segments or merchandise,” Basmah Al-Mayman, Center East regional director of the UN Tourism (previously UN World Tourism Group), instructed Arab Information. 

“Desert locations have shared in the advantages of this double-diversification course of, making it an much more urgent precedence to outline a sustainable strategy to tourism growth in desert areas.”

As a Saudi nationwide herself, Al-Mayman acknowledges the worth of the Kingdom’s treasured ecosystems as a income and nationwide delight. Nonetheless, she believes the tourism business, builders, and vacationers themselves have a accountability to behave sustainably.

“Within the desert, greater than anyplace, with locations nonetheless comparatively untouched by the hostile results tourism can carry, sustainability represents a very crucial problem,” she stated.

“The messages conveyed by UN Tourism usually are not solely preventive in character, but in addition supply stakeholders at worldwide in addition to native ranges the recommendation and instruments they should fight poverty and desertification whereas enabling tourism to correctly play its function as a car for growth.”

In response to UN Tourism, sustainability rules consult with the environmental, financial, and socio-cultural features of tourism growth. A steadiness should be established between these dimensions to ensure its long-term sustainability.

Sustainable tourism ought to due to this fact make optimum use of environmental assets that represent a key component in tourism growth, whereas sustaining important ecological processes and serving to to preserve pure heritage and biodiversity.

As the most important nation within the Center East, occupying greater than 80 p.c of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia is dwelling to 5 distinct climatic areas. 

These biomes embody coastal fog desert, the southwestern savanna foothills, the southwestern montane woodlands, the Arabian Desert, the Nubo-Sindian tropical desert, and areas of semi-desert.

Intensive looking within the nineteenth century resulted within the inhabitants decline of lots of Saudi Arabia’s indigenous animals, together with oryx, leopards, and cheetahs. The Kingdom has since imposed bans on poaching and launched breeding packages to assist bolster populations.

Different wildlife present in these habitats included striped hyenas, mongoose, baboons, sand cats, and hopping desert rodents often known as jerboa. Guests prepared to courageous the area’s harsh temperatures could also be rewarded with a glimpse of a Nubian ibex, sand gazelles, or a complete array of reptiles. 

Occupying some 25 p.c of Saudi Arabia’s territory, the Rub’ Al-Khali, also called the Empty Quarter, is something however what its identify would possibly counsel. The world’s largest sand desert is in actual fact dwelling to a dizzying array of wildlife.

Likewise, the Kingdom’s scrublands, steppes, mangroves, volcanic fields, palm oases, and mountain ranges are teeming with creatures — nesting, looking, feeding, and burrowing, lots of them out of sight, popping out solely within the cool hours of evening.

DIDYOU KNOW

No desert animal is probably higher acknowledged than the camel. It’s due to its iconic standing that the UN and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tradition has designated 2024 because the “Yr of the Camel.”

Simply this previous week, the second ever AlUla Camel Cup was celebrated within the Kingdom’s historic northwestern area. The four-day occasion centered on the animal, which has develop into synonymous with the nation’s identification. 

The camel has been the Bedouin’s greatest pal for hundreds of years, in addition to a loyal companion and a lifeline. Even the Prophet Muhammad relied on camels for transportation and as a supply of meals and gas.

Camels usually are not the one animals getting their second within the limelight. Saudi Arabia’s Nationwide Heart for Wildlife and the Saudi Inexperienced Initiative have been working arduous to make sure not one of the Kingdom’s fauna is missed.

Assigning an animal to be championed throughout a particular 12 months, month, or day has been instrumental in elevating consciousness concerning the wellbeing and conservation of the area’s distinctive species.

In 2022, the Royal Fee for AlUla launched a marketing campaign for the popularity of “Worldwide Arabian Leopard Day.” In 2023, the UN Common Meeting unanimously designated Feb. 10 because the “Worldwide Day of the Arabian Leopard.”

The Arabian leopard as soon as loved a variety stretching throughout a big swathe of the Arabian Peninsula, from southern Jordan to Yemen. 

However, after years of human encroachment on its habitat, ensuing within the depletion of its pure prey, the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature listed the large cat as a critically endangered species.

Saudi Arabia has lengthy been on the forefront of animal conservation, with the Imam Abdulaziz bin Mohammad Royal Reserve Improvement Authority reintroducing greater than 220 endangered species into the wild within the Kingdom’s royal reserves over the previous 5 seasons. 

A lot of this has been accomplished in tandem with sustainable tourism initiatives, designed to guard the Kingdom’s ecosystems, whereas offering jobs, providers, and prosperity to native communities.

As an example, within the historic deserts of northwest Saudi Arabia, framed by curious rock formations with their dramatic silhouettes, the luxurious inexperienced oasis of AlUla has been repeatedly occupied by people since earlier than the twelfth century.

All through that point, animals have been important to the world and to the livelihoods of its human residents.

In keeping with Saudi Imaginative and prescient 2030, the Royal Fee for AlUla has launched an initiative to rehabilitate 65,000 hectares of degraded land, activating the house and resurrecting the concord between people and nature — an natural partnership that has outlined the area for millennia.

Apart from AlUla, almost each different desert house within the Kingdom has launched curated excursions that mindfully lead people into the wilderness with the intention of having fun with, honoring, and respecting the animals that dwell there. 

The Kingdom has made important strides in guaranteeing that its animals proceed to flourish in a quickly altering world and a nation that goals to develop into a serious tourism magnet within the years to return.

However with extra folks, autos, and infrastructure coming to the desert, it’s a collective accountability to make sure guests accomplish that with out disturbing these treasured ecosystems and their animal inhabitants.