https://arab.news/m9z75
- Foreigners have until end-August to remove livestock
- Desertification increasing at a rapid rate, say experts
Riyadh: In a bid to prevent overgrazing, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has given foreigners who have camels and other livestock on Saudi land until the end of August to remove the animals.
In a statement, the ministry said the aim is to preserve the Kingdom’s natural resources, as part of the Saudi Green Initiative.
The owners should register on the Naama platform via naama.sa/services/details, and ensure the animals are taken to their home countries.
According to Ibrahim Aref, a former professor of forests and environment at King Saud University, the situation has become critical: “The increasing load of grazing, drought, lack of rain and fragility of pastoral lands has led to the disappearance of many important plants.”
Khalid Al-Saleem, head of Ardhuna Alkhadraa (Our Green Land) Association in Al-Jouf and Khafji told Arab News: “Environmental specialists were waiting for this decision for years, due to the increase in the number of livestock, which made the land barren.”
“This decision is of great importance to preserve the pastures and the degraded vegetation cover, especially after the development of programs to regulate grazing by the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification.”
Al-Saleem, who is also the director of Noura Environmental Nurseries for the cultivation of wild plants, said vegetation cover is important to mitigate heat, as well as reduce sand encroachment and desertification.