Saudis Push Preservation of Wildlife

The four-wheel-drive vehicle crunches over brittle, sunbaked rocks before stopping within inches of a chasm that cuts across the Saudi Arabian plateau, at the head of a gorge stretching for miles into the distance.

Naif Mutlak Bugumi, dressed in the two-toned, ankle-length khaki robe and red-and-white headdress that is the smart new uniform of a Saudi game ranger, never seems worried that the cliff might not hold and that his car and two American passengers might tumble into a 300-yard abyss.

Nonchalantly, he gets out and leans over the edge, craning his neck left and right, then motions in triumph. Below, four ibexes are resting on a shadowed ledge. They stir at the unwanted attention and run daintily along a narrow path away from the intruders.

Thought Saudi Arabia was just oil fields and trackless desert? There is life out there--gazelles and leopards, hyenas and baboons--and habitats that include water-carved canyons, mangrove forests and juniper-covered mountains.

These are natural wonders little known outside Saudi Arabia.

Long perceived as one of the most closed societies on Earth, Saudi Arabia has started to preserve its wilderness and rescue its animals from extinction. As a result, it is even toying with an idea that once would have been unthinkable: opening itself to the worldwide trend in eco-tourism.

Just over a decade ago, the kingdom launched a program to rescue and restore endangered species on the Arabian Peninsula. The campaign is both a reflection of pride that Saudis feel toward their harsh, wild landscapes, and a reaction to the urbanization and modernization that has overtaken the country of 18 million people since World War II.

Fifty years ago, Saudi cities--even the king’s palace--were built of adobe. Bedouins roamed the interior, their flocks following the sparse rains. Wild dogs and hyenas prowled the edges of human settlements.

But the oil boom brought cars, highways and air conditioning. Desalinated water and government-subsidized fodder for animals made nomadic life unnecessary. Life moved indoors.

The immense technological gains have made life easier, but many Saudis pine for a connection with the land that has been lost. It is evident on Friday afternoons, when many families wander out to the desert for picnics and prayers as the sun sets.

The modernization has also meant more encroachment on natural habitat. Hunters use all-terrain vehicles to track animals and birds in previously inaccessible areas, and divers armed with spear guns decimate marine life.

Alarmed that a natural heritage was being lost, the government launched the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development in 1986 to conserve habitat and species.

Members of the royal family, including Defense Minister Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal and King Fahd himself, have been enthusiastic patrons, says the commission’s general secretary, Abdulaziz H. Abuzinadah.

Eleven protected areas have been established, covering about 4% of the kingdom’s area, and long-term plans are for more than 100 land and marine reserves to protect all types of species.

The commission has also established three centers for research into and breeding of endangered native species, including the houbara bustard, a large game bird; the Arabian oryx, an antelope with long straight horns; other gazelles of various types found only in the Arabian Peninsula; and the ibex.

The Arabian oryx had been extinct in the wild until the commission stepped in. From a founding herd of 37 of the small, nearly white antelopes, the national herd has grown to more than 400 thanks to captive breeding and reintroduction to the wild.

At Hawtat Bani Tamim, 120 miles south of the capital, Riyadh, visitors to the National Ibex Reserve are met by rangers recruited from the local Bedouin population.

The 200,000-acre reserve, part of the Tuwayq mountain escarpment, is a mini-Grand Canyon, a network of golden wadis, or gorges, carved by rains in ancient times when Saudi Arabia was better watered.

Ibexes, mountain gazelles, vultures, partridges and small mammals populate the reserve. There are Stonehenge-like rock towers from prehistoric inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and fossils galore, as well as starkly beautiful sandstone formations.

The rangers are adept at detecting the slight movement of a gazelle or ibex from hundreds of yards away, and they use their vehicles to search the difficult terrain for the elusive creatures.

Fiercely proud and independent, the rangers spend part of their time deterring poaching. They do not routinely carry guns, but Bugumi keeps a sword on his backseat.

Visitors are treated as honored guests, recipients of legendary Bedouin hospitality.

Although Saudi Arabia does not generally issue visas for tourism, Abuzinadah said serious eco-tourists could apply to come as guests of the wildlife commission.

Neighboring countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman are more welcoming for foreign tourists, but Abuzinadah said the kingdom now has “a certain interest in tourism,” although mostly directed at encouraging travel within the country by people already here for work.

“We do not see our reserves as something that need to be isolated from man,” he said. “We hope that people come, that they enjoy, but without causing any degradation.”

One U.S. explorer who has traveled widely in Saudi Arabia is Jeff Wynn of the U.S. Geological Survey, who lived in the kingdom for four years earlier this decade and made four trips into the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, the world’s largest sand desert. Roughly the size of France, Belgium and the Netherlands combined, it boasts dunes that rise to 1,000 feet.

“The Empty Quarter is one of the most fascinating of all places,” Wynn said in a telephone interview from Reston, Va. “In its core, there is life. But it is hard to understand why because there is almost no moisture.”

Of course, life there is not all that pleasant, he added, listing poisonous white scorpions, carnivorous camel spiders and sand vipers among the creatures he encountered. But much of the rest of the kingdom is more benign and fascinating to see, he said.

“There are places in Saudi Arabia where you couldn’t tell you weren’t in Arizona,” he said. “It’s absolutely gorgeous desert with substantial vegetation.”

And on the escarpment in western Saudi Arabia, where elevations rise to 10,000 feet, there are coniferous forests with trees more than 25 feet tall and cliffs populated by baboons and hyraxes, rodent-like mammals.

Besides preserving habitats and breeding and reintroducing threatened species to the wild, Abuzinadah said, the commission’s major aims have been to draft laws to protect the environment and to educate the Saudi public through the media on the importance of protecting Arabian wildlife.

Watching the gazelles gambol at Hawtat Bani Tamim, the effort seems to be paying off.