RIYADH: Saudi Environment Week (May 3-9, 2026) opened with the theme “Green Impact,” as the Kingdom highlights environmental progress this year through stronger governance, expanding protected areas, increased recycling, and restoration programs.
Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadley inaugurated the Environment Week in Riyadh on Sunday.
Across the Kingdom, the week features initiatives, exhibitions, and educational workshops focused on sustainability, vegetation cover, and waste management.
The minister, in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Council of Universities’ Affairs, organized a workshop on Monday on the green university concept as part of national efforts to enhance sustainability in the higher education sector and align it with Saudi Vision 2030 targets.
The workshop, part of Environment Week 2026, reviewed the integrated framework for moving toward sustainable universities based on five main pillars: green education, research and innovation, campus operations, community engagement, and governance, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
But the 2026 storyline extends beyond event programming, with attention centered on how national environmental policies are translating into practical outcomes aligned with Vision 2030.
At the Riyadh launch, Osama Ibrahim Faqeeha, deputy minister for environment, said the annual week is held each spring, intended to broaden participation in environmental protection throughout society.
At the launch, organizers hosted exhibitions and workshops, with participating booths from many sectors and limited networking sessions.
Alongside the week’s activities, MEWA is promoting the Environmental Awareness Initiative, a national program aimed at strengthening environmental knowledge and encouraging shared responsibility.
Faqeeha also pointed to a wider shift in how environmental protection is being delivered, referencing a new institutional framework that includes expanded protected areas, updated regulations and standards, and stronger compliance capacity.
The deputy minister attended the signing of 44 strategic partnership agreements aimed at strengthening environmental sustainability, broadening the reach of initiatives, and supporting afforestation projects.
“Although we are still at the beginning of this journey, we have begun to see clear positive effects of this qualitative shift in environmental protection,” he said.
Faqeeha also cited improvements the ministry is tracking, including a major increase in protected-zone coverage and a sharp rise in recycling performance, alongside a decline in harmful practices such as poaching and illegal logging.
“The area of protected zones has more than quadrupled, and the waste recycling rate has more than tripled.”
Faqeeha also mentioned large-scale restoration and greening where “over one million hectares of desertified land were rehabilitated, and approximately 159 million trees were planted using renewable water sources and native plant species.”
He further highlighted expanded services and readiness measures, including broader meteorological coverage and the launch of a cloud seeding program, which, he said, supported increased rainfall, improved vegetation cover, and reduced dust storms.
“More than 90 percent of industrial facilities have obtained environmental permits,” Faqeeha said.
Majed Al-Qatari, a sustainability leader, ecological engineer and UN youth ambassador, told Arab News that awareness campaigns should be judged through before-and-after behavior data — such as household waste sorting, recycling contamination, food waste reduction, water and energy use, and public transport ridership — so outreach is tied to measurable results rather than treated as a standalone activity.
“The biggest challenge is not the lack of awareness; the majority understand how important it is to protect the environment.”
He said the main barrier is the gap between awareness and convenience, adding that progress depends on making sustainable choices the easiest option for people in daily life.
Prof. Fernando T. Maestre, chair of the environmental science and engineering program and professor of environmental science, told Arab News that research in dryland ecology and land restoration is central to national environmental priorities such as Saudi Environment Week and the Saudi Green Initiative.
He said drylands dominate the Kingdom’s landscapes and are highly vulnerable to climate change, overgrazing, soil degradation, and desertification.
“Understanding how these ecosystems function, how they respond to environmental pressures such as climate change and overgrazing, and how they can recover is essential to design restoration and greening actions that are effective, scalable, and sustainable in the long term.”
