KPMG: Saudi Arabia Working to Advance Sporting Culture to Attract Tourists

KPMG: Saudi Arabia Working to Advance Sporting Culture to Attract Tourists
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KPMG: Saudi Arabia Working to Advance Sporting Culture to Attract Tourists

KPMG: Saudi Arabia Working to Advance Sporting Culture to Attract Tourists

Countries like Saudi Arabia are advancing agendas to build a sporting culture that attracts domestic and international tourists, KPMG, an advisory services firm, announced on Wednesday.

This requires a vast effort, including organizing spectator and participant sporting events, promoting sports tourism to new markets and upgrading infrastructure, among myriad other grassroots initiatives, it said.

Saudi Arabia and its peers need to take a close look at what unique qualities their country has to offer sports tourists. These qualities start with geography but are certainly not limited to it. Thoughtful planning and investment— with the help of today’s technology—can foster just about any sport, anywhere, KPMG added.

In Saudi Arabia, the sports sector contributes around 0.2% of the Kingdom’s GDP, while the tourism sector contributes around 3% according to the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Tourism.

The ministries have ambitious targets for growth: by 2030 sports should contribute 0.6% of GDP and tourism 10%. One of the areas where these sectors cross is sports tourism.



Calls for 'Smartphone Free' Childhood Grow in UK

Children are pressuring their parents to get smartphones at a young age. JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
Children are pressuring their parents to get smartphones at a young age. JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
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Calls for 'Smartphone Free' Childhood Grow in UK

Children are pressuring their parents to get smartphones at a young age. JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
Children are pressuring their parents to get smartphones at a young age. JUNG YEON-JE / AFP

It is the question many adults dread being asked by their children: when can I have a smartphone? But as fears grow about the impact of the gadgets on young minds, some UK parents are fighting back.
The challenge is being led by mother-of-three Daisy Greenwell after a casual school gate conversation spurred her into action, AFP said.
Greenwell, who had been privately mulling the issue with a close friend for some time, was told by another mother that her own 11-year-old son already had a smartphone, as did a third of the boy's class.
"This conversation has filled me with terror. I don't want to give my child something that I know will damage her mental health and make her addicted," she wrote on Instagram.
"But I also know that the pressure to do so, if the rest of her class have one, will be massive," added the journalist from Woodbridge, eastern England.
The post in February triggered a tidal wave of reaction from parents similarly gripped by anxiety about providing their children with a device they fear will open them up to predators, online bullying, social pressure and harmful content.
Greenwell and her friend Clare Reynolds have now launched the Parents United for a Smartphone Free Childhood campaign.
Academic research combined with parents' own experiences have created a sense of dread about a child's request for a phone.
At the same time parents say they feel powerless to refuse, with phones for school-age children "normalized", supposedly on safety grounds.
'Snowballed'
UK schools minister Damian Hinds told a parliamentary committee recently that almost all pupils now got a mobile phone around the age of 11 or 12.
"There seems to be something of a rite of passage about that," he told MPs, adding that some children got one "quite a lot earlier".
After Greenwell finally broached the subject on Instagram, a WhatsApp group she set up to discuss the issue with Reynolds quickly filled with like-minded parents relieved that others felt the same way.
Then the reaction just "snowballed", she added.
Greenwell said there is now a group in every area of the country as well as a few working groups for people with professional expertise on the issue.
"We've got an education one which has got lots of headteachers from across the country," she added.
"They are talking about how we can roll this out, how we can help parents and schools to collaborate and stop people from getting a smartphone at such a young age."
Other working groups are full of people who "are really knowledgeable and experienced in their fields", including an advocacy group to talk about policy change.
Those signed up include a tech company policy director and a staffer at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's 10 Downing Street office.
"They're people who really, really know the lie of the land," she said.
Childhood rewired
Many of the parents' concerns are echoed in US social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's just-published book "The Anxious Generation".
In it, Haidt argues that the "complete transformation of childhood that took place between 2010 and 2015" as smartphones really took off has led to a "great rewiring of childhood".
He links the rise of the "phone-based childhood", continual supervision by adults and the loss of "free play" to spikes in mental illness in young people.
"Things were getting better and better in mental health and then everything goes haywire in 2013.... we have to basically rip the smartphone out of the lives of kids," he said.
According to American College Health Association figures highlighted by Haidt, since 2010 the percentage of US undergraduates diagnosed with anxiety has soared by 134 percent while the number being diagnosed with depression has also spiked, by 104 percent.
A similar picture has also emerged, Haidt says, in all major English-speaking countries and many other European countries as well.
He advocates no smartphones before the age of 14 or social media before 16.
Crucially, he says, parents must act together to prevent them caving in when a child "breaks our heart" by telling us they are excluded from their peer group by being the only one without a phone.
"These things are hard to do as one parent. But if we all do it together -- if even half of us do it together -- then it becomes much easier for our kids," he said.


A $15 Toll to Drive Into Part of Manhattan Approved. That's a 1st for US Cities

FILE - Commuters wait to drive through the Holland Tunnel into New York City during morning rush hour traffic in Jersey City, N.J., on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - Commuters wait to drive through the Holland Tunnel into New York City during morning rush hour traffic in Jersey City, N.J., on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
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A $15 Toll to Drive Into Part of Manhattan Approved. That's a 1st for US Cities

FILE - Commuters wait to drive through the Holland Tunnel into New York City during morning rush hour traffic in Jersey City, N.J., on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - Commuters wait to drive through the Holland Tunnel into New York City during morning rush hour traffic in Jersey City, N.J., on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

New York is on track to become the first US city with congestion tolls on drivers entering its central business district after transit officials approved a $15 fee for most motorists headed to the busiest part of Manhattan.
Members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday voted to greenlight the congestion pricing plan, expected to go into effect in June. The board approved only minor changes to a plan presented to the public months ago, and brushed off requests for exceptions by dozens of groups of commuters.
The vote authorizes a $15 toll on most commuter passenger vehicles that drive into Manhattan south of 60th Street, a zone that's south of Central Park, during daytime hours. Tolls are higher for larger vehicles, and lower for late-night entries into the city, as well as for motorcycles, The Associated Press reported.
Supporters of the new tolls say it will push more people to use public transport, reduce congestion to speed up public buses and emergency vehicles, reduce pollution, and raise money needed to improve the subway system. Opponents say the fees are a burden on workers and will increase the prices of staple goods that are driven to the city by truck.
To enter Manhattan, commuters from other states and boroughs already pay around $15 in bridge and tunnel tolls — and the congestion fee will come on top of that. Daily parking costs already run $25 to $50 in the congestion zone, which includes a dozen neighborhoods in Manhattan that are south of 60th street.
New York’s plan has drawn lawsuits from small business owners and the state of New Jersey which demand more thorough environmental assessments before the plan moves forward. In court documents, state officials argue the plan will cost its commuters millions but won't fund improvements in New Jersey transit agencies, even as it funds public transit in New York and Connecticut.
The state Legislature approved the tolls in 2019, mandating that the program should raise $1 billion per year to fund public subway and bus systems for the city’s 4 million daily riders. It also established the boundaries of the zone, which covers the busiest part of the city, and scaled back early proposals to include the area up to 86th Street. The pandemic and lack of federal regulation stalled the project.
Tolls will vary based on the time of day and the size of the vehicle, ranging from $1.75 for motorcycles crossing overnight to $36 for sightseeing buses and trucks with trailers during the day. The overnight period runs from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays, and from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. on weekends.
Visitors without E-ZPasses — a device that collects toll information remotely — will pay more. And as on bridges, license plate readers are expected to identify other drivers, so that they can be billed by mail.
Taxis will charge passengers $1.25 per trip that touches the zone, while app-based rides will charge $2.50.


German Mail Service Stops Using Domestic Flights to Transport Letters after Nearly 63 Years

WISAG employees load a Eurowings Airbus A320-214 bound for Stuttgart with plastic boxes full of mail, at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, in Schönefeld, Germany, Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Soeren Stache/dpa via AP)
WISAG employees load a Eurowings Airbus A320-214 bound for Stuttgart with plastic boxes full of mail, at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, in Schönefeld, Germany, Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Soeren Stache/dpa via AP)
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German Mail Service Stops Using Domestic Flights to Transport Letters after Nearly 63 Years

WISAG employees load a Eurowings Airbus A320-214 bound for Stuttgart with plastic boxes full of mail, at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, in Schönefeld, Germany, Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Soeren Stache/dpa via AP)
WISAG employees load a Eurowings Airbus A320-214 bound for Stuttgart with plastic boxes full of mail, at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, in Schönefeld, Germany, Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Soeren Stache/dpa via AP)

Germany's main national postal carrier on Thursday stopped using domestic flights to transport letters after nearly 63 years, a move that reflects the declining significance of letter mail and allows it to improve its climate footprint.
Deutsche Post said the last planes carrying letters between northern and southern Germany, operated by Lufthansa unit Eurowings and Tui Fly, flew overnight on the Stuttgart-Berlin, Hannover-Munich and Hannover-Stuttgart routes, the Associated Press said.
The company said letters between those destinations will now be transported by road, allowing the company to reduce transport-related carbon dioxide emissions on the routes by over 80%.
“In times of climate change, airmail for domestic letters within Germany can no longer be justified — also because there is no longer the same urgency associated with letter mail as in decades past,” Marc Hitschfeld, chief operations officer of parent company DHL Group's German mail and parcel division, said in a statement.
Draft legislation approved by the German Cabinet in December, which still needs parliamentary approval, is set to reduce pressure on Deutsche Post to deliver letters quickly, allowing it to cut costs.
At present, the mail service is supposed to deliver at least 80% of letters on the working day after they are mailed. Under the planned new rules, it will have to deliver 95% by the third working day.
German domestic mail flights started in September 1961. Both the volume of mail carried by air and the number of destinations served have declined drastically since the mid-1990s.


‘Jood Regions’ Provides Homes for 10,000 Saudi Families

A donors gathering in Makkah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)
A donors gathering in Makkah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)
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‘Jood Regions’ Provides Homes for 10,000 Saudi Families

A donors gathering in Makkah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)
A donors gathering in Makkah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)

Each year during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting in Islam, Saudi Arabia's non-profit Housing Development Organization “Sakan” launches its annual Jood Regions campaign.

It aims to provide over 10,000 housing units for the neediest families across Saudi cities. The campaign launch includes events to raise awareness and encourage community participation.

These events, organized by local authorities, bring together entrepreneurs, leaders, and others to ensure citizens get suitable housing with ease and reliability, fulfilling the goals of developmental housing initiatives.

Abdulaziz Al-Kreedies, the Secretary-General Sakan, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Jood Regions campaign aims to provide housing solutions through partnerships with different sectors.

Moreover, the campaign wants to support non-profit housing efforts and local housing associations. The goal is to encourage communities to help the neediest families in their areas creatively, fostering social support and ensuring housing security for them.

The campaign organized diverse events across Saudi Arabia’s regions and provinces, involving government bodies, private sectors, universities, malls, and public spaces, totaling over 257 activities.

They used creative advertising, including local billboards, to reach communities.

The “Jood Eskan” platform is another project by Sakan. Chaired by Saudi Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, Majid Al-Hogail, Sakan aims to encourage community participation through innovative initiatives.

They also lead efforts to empower the non-profit housing sector for sustainable solutions.


'Saudi Reef' Contributes to Planting 13 Million Trees as Part of Saudi Green Initiative

The Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program announced that it has contributed to planting 13 million trees in various regions of the Kingdom. (SPA)
The Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program announced that it has contributed to planting 13 million trees in various regions of the Kingdom. (SPA)
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'Saudi Reef' Contributes to Planting 13 Million Trees as Part of Saudi Green Initiative

The Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program announced that it has contributed to planting 13 million trees in various regions of the Kingdom. (SPA)
The Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program announced that it has contributed to planting 13 million trees in various regions of the Kingdom. (SPA)

The Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program, known as Saudi Reef, announced that it has contributed to planting 13 million trees in various regions of the Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency said on Wednesday.
The project is part of the Saudi Green Initiative which aims to plant 10 billion trees across the Kingdom.
The program is part of the efforts to support small farmers by providing financial subsidies to improve their livelihoods. Additionally, the program trains farmers to develop agricultural methods, including afforestation programs.
A close to 6,754 beneficiaries have received support as part of the Saudi Green Initiative.
The supported items include coffee, flowers, roses, henna, safflower, and various fruits such as bajali almonds, apricots, pomegranates, Bukhari, and peaches.


King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Contributes to Saudi Green Initiative’s Goals

CEO of the King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority Eng. Maher bin Abdullah Al-Gothmi. (SPA)
CEO of the King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority Eng. Maher bin Abdullah Al-Gothmi. (SPA)
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King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Contributes to Saudi Green Initiative’s Goals

CEO of the King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority Eng. Maher bin Abdullah Al-Gothmi. (SPA)
CEO of the King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority Eng. Maher bin Abdullah Al-Gothmi. (SPA)

The CEO of the King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority, Eng. Maher bin Abdullah Al-Gothmi, described Saudi Green Initiative Day as a celebration of Saudi Arabia's achievements in the field of climate action and addressing various environmental challenges.
Al-Gothmi added that the event, which falls on March 27, is an opportunity to unify the efforts of Saudi society members and activate their role in building a sustainable future, the Saudi Press Agency said on Thursday.
"Thank God and under the guidance and follow-up of Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, the chairman of the board of directors of the King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority, has succeeded in aligning its projects, initiatives, and outputs with the targets of the Saudi Green Initiative since its launch by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince on March 27, 2021”, said Al-Gothmi.
This was achieved through integrated partnerships with government entities, the private sector, non-profit third-sector organizations, and particularly voluntary environmental associations, to ensure their sustainability for the current and future generations, he said.
The King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve is one of the seven reserves established by a royal decree. It is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and has an independent authority led by Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz.


A Faster Spinning Earth May Cause Timekeepers to Subtract a Second from World Clocks

This image provided by NOAA/NASA In This May 31, 2018 satellite image shows the Earth's western hemisphere at 12:00 p.m. EDT on May 20, 2018, made by the new GOES-17 satellite, using the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument. (NOAA/NASA via AP, File)
This image provided by NOAA/NASA In This May 31, 2018 satellite image shows the Earth's western hemisphere at 12:00 p.m. EDT on May 20, 2018, made by the new GOES-17 satellite, using the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument. (NOAA/NASA via AP, File)
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A Faster Spinning Earth May Cause Timekeepers to Subtract a Second from World Clocks

This image provided by NOAA/NASA In This May 31, 2018 satellite image shows the Earth's western hemisphere at 12:00 p.m. EDT on May 20, 2018, made by the new GOES-17 satellite, using the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument. (NOAA/NASA via AP, File)
This image provided by NOAA/NASA In This May 31, 2018 satellite image shows the Earth's western hemisphere at 12:00 p.m. EDT on May 20, 2018, made by the new GOES-17 satellite, using the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument. (NOAA/NASA via AP, File)

Earth’s changing spin is threatening to toy with our sense of time, clocks and computerized society in an unprecedented way — but only for a second.

For the first time in history, world timekeepers may have to consider subtracting a second from our clocks in a few years because the planet is rotating a tad faster than it used to. Clocks may have to skip a second — called a "negative leap second" — around 2029, a study in the journal Nature said Wednesday.

"This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal," said study lead author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. "It’s not a huge change in the Earth’s rotation that’s going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It’s yet another indication that we’re in a very unusual time."

Ice melting at both of Earth’s poles has been counteracting the planet's burst of speed and is likely to have delayed this global second of reckoning by about three years, Agnew said.

"We are headed toward a negative leap second," said Dennis McCarthy, retired director of time for the US Naval Observatory who wasn’t part of the study. "It’s a matter of when."

It’s a complicated situation that involves, physics, global power politics, climate change, technology and two types of time.

Earth takes about 24 hours to rotate, but the key word is about.

For thousands of years, the Earth has been generally slowing down, with the rate varying from time to time, said Agnew and Judah Levine, a physicist for the time and frequency division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The slowing is mostly caused by the effect of tides, which are caused by the pull of the moon, McCarthy said.

This didn’t matter until atomic clocks were adopted as the official time standard more than 55 years ago. Those didn’t slow.

That established two versions of time — astronomical and atomic — and they didn't match. Astronomical time fell behind atomic time by 2.5 milliseconds every day. That meant the atomic clock would say it’s midnight and to Earth it was midnight a fraction of a second later, Agnew said.

Those daily fractions of seconds added up to whole seconds every few years. Starting in 1972, international timekeepers decided to add a "leap second" in June or December for astronomical time to catch up to the atomic time, called Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. Instead of 11:59 and 59 seconds turning to midnight, there would be another second at 11:59 and 60 seconds. A negative leap second would go from 11:59 and 58 seconds directly to midnight, skipping 11:59:59.

Between 1972 and 2016, 27 separate leap seconds were added as Earth slowed. But the rate of slowing was tapering off.

"In 2016 or 2017 or maybe 2018, the slowdown rate had slowed down to the point that the Earth was actually speeding up," Levine said.

Earth’s speeding up because its hot liquid core — "a large ball of molten fluid" — acts in unpredictable ways, with eddies and flows that vary, Agnew said.

Agnew said the core has been triggering a speedup for about 50 years, but rapid melting of ice at the poles since 1990 masked that effect. Melting ice shifts Earth’s mass from the poles to the bulging center, which slows the rotation much like a spinning ice skater slows when extending their arms out to their sides, he said.

Without the effect of melting ice, Earth would need that negative leap second in 2026 instead of 2029, Agnew calculated.

For decades, astronomers had been keeping universal and astronomical time together with those handy little leap seconds. But computer system operators said those additions aren’t easy for all the precise technology the world now relies on. In 2012, some computer systems mishandled the leap second, causing problems for Reddit, Linux, Qantas Airlines and others, experts said.

"What is the need for this adjustment in time when it causes so many problems?" McCarthy said.

But Russia’s satellite system relies on astronomical time, so eliminating leap seconds would cause them problems, Agnew and McCarthy said. Astronomers and others wanted to keep the system that would add a leap second whenever the difference between atomic and astronomical time neared a second.

In 2022, the world’s timekeepers decided that starting in the 2030s they’d change the standards for inserting or deleting a leap second, making it much less likely.

Tech companies such as Google and Amazon unilaterally instituted their own solutions to the leap second issue by gradually adding fractions of a second over a full day, Levine said.

"The fights are so serious because the stakes are so small," Levine said.

Then add in the "weird" effect of subtracting, not adding a leap second, Agnew said. It’s likely to be tougher to skip a second because software programs are designed to add, not subtract time, McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the trend toward needing a negative leap second is clear, but he thinks it’s more to do with the Earth becoming more round from geologic shifts from the end of the last ice age.

Three other outside scientists said Agnew's study makes sense, calling his evidence compelling.

But Levine doesn’t think a negative leap second will really be needed. He said the overall slowing trend from tides has been around for centuries and continues, but the shorter trends in Earth’s core come and go.

"This is not a process where the past is a good prediction of the future," Levine said. "Anyone who makes a long-term prediction on the future is on very, very shaky ground."


On its First Celebration... Saudi Green Initiative Enhances Planet Protection

The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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On its First Celebration... Saudi Green Initiative Enhances Planet Protection

The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

In line with a decision by the Saudi government, March 27 of each year has been designated as an official day to celebrate the Saudi Green Initiative, which aims to chart a path for Saudi Arabia and the region in protecting the planet.

The initiative, launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in March 2021, oversees the implementation of a sustainable, long-term climate action plan that supports Saudi Arabia’s ambition to achieve the goal of zero neutrality by 2060 through the circular carbon economy, and accelerate transition towards a green economy.

The initiative embodies the vision of Prince Mohammed, Crown Prince, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Green Saudi Arabia, to confront the challenges of climate change, improve the quality of life, protect the environment, and advance sustainable innovation for the benefit of future generations.

Leading role

Riyadh plays a pioneering role in reducing the effects of climate change and carbon emissions, given its rich resources and experience in managing global energy stability. According to experts and specialists, Saudi Arabia is qualified to lead a new era of climate action and contribute significantly to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

During the meeting of Arab ministers concerned with climate affairs in Riyadh in October, Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stressed that responding to the challenges of climate change was a shared responsibility.

He explained that each region has its own environment that requires different means and implementation mechanisms to deal with this challenge, emphasizing the importance of four axes, namely adaptation, mitigation, financing, and global effort.

The minister also underlined the vital role of young men and women in responding to the challenges of climate change, by developing solutions and innovations and participating actively in decision-making.

Consolidating interest

Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli, the Saudi Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, said on his personal account on X that the Council of Ministers’ decision to designate March 27 as an annual day for the Saudi Green initiative represents a “consolidation of the leadership’s interest in environmental issues locally and internationally” and “supports the Kingdom’s approach to leading the green era, and ensuring a more sustainable future for the next generations.”

For his part, Majid Al-Hogail, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, said Saudi Arabia will continue “our journey to enhance the prosperity of our cities and raise the quality of life,” adding: “Our ambitions are great. We are always capable of achieving them.”

Many government agencies are expected to organize events to mark the Saudi Green Initiative Day and highlight their efforts in reducing carbon emissions, increasing afforestation and protecting land and marine areas.

The Ministry of Environment said that 43 afforestation projects have been launched as part of the Saudi Green initiative to achieve the goal of planting 10 billion trees inside Saudi Arabia, and 40 billion trees throughout the region, and rehabilitating degraded lands.

This will ultimately reduce carbon emissions around the world by 2.5 percent, the ministry told Asharq Al-Awsat.

77 different programs

Since the announcement of the Saudi Green Initiative, 77 different programs have been launched to support these goals and drive sustainable growth, with investments worth more than SAR700 billion.

Saudi Arabia has transformed its commitments into concrete actions by uniting the efforts of the government and private sectors and promoting opportunities for cooperation and innovation. It is also moving towards achieving its national climate ambitions and supporting global goals in this framework.

43 afforestation initiatives

The 43 afforestation initiatives aim to plant about 400 million trees by 2030.

The official spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture told Asharq Al-Awsat that these initiatives have contributed until the third quarter of 2023 to planting 43.9 million trees in various parts of Saudi Arabia, and reclaiming 94,000 hectares of degraded lands, achieving a 300 percent increase in production capacity to reduce carbon emissions, and more than 8 gigawatts in production capacity for renewable energy projects.

Biodiversity

In order to strengthen and enhance biological diversity, restore the local natural environment, and increase the percentage of protected areas to more than 30 percent of the total land area in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry said that work is underway to implement four initiatives that will contribute to increasing the percentage of protected terrestrial areas to more than 21 percent, and the percentage of marine protected areas to more than 26 percent by 2030.

Moreover, since the launch of the Saudi Green initiative, 1,669 endangered animals, such as the Arabian oryx, sand gazelle, and ibex, have been resettled in the Kingdom’s natural reserves, where they help enhance biodiversity.

Community participation

The initiative called on all members of Saudi society to participate in the activities of the first edition of the Saudi Green Initiative Day. The Ministry’s spokesman, Saleh bin Abdul Mohsen bin Dakhil, confirmed “a great demand by members of society to participate in the afforestation initiatives taking place in various parts of the country.”

He said that more than 150,000 volunteers have registered to participate in these projects over the past two years, adding that this number is expected to double.

Remote Sensing

With regards to new agricultural technologies that have been utilized within the framework of sustainable solutions that preserve the environment, the Ministry of Environment launched a program for remote sensing and artificial intelligence technologies to study the reality of vegetation areas and contribute to achieving afforestation goals.

Advanced technologies support tree planting efforts in hard-to-reach areas, by identifying suitable sites for planting them, studying the nature of the soil and plant species, and monitoring the movement of sand.


Australia Battles to Save Last 11 Wild ‘Earless Dragons’ 

This picture taken on March 25, 2024 shows a grassland earless dragon lizard at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve located on the outskirts of the Australian capital city of Canberra. (AFP)
This picture taken on March 25, 2024 shows a grassland earless dragon lizard at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve located on the outskirts of the Australian capital city of Canberra. (AFP)
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Australia Battles to Save Last 11 Wild ‘Earless Dragons’ 

This picture taken on March 25, 2024 shows a grassland earless dragon lizard at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve located on the outskirts of the Australian capital city of Canberra. (AFP)
This picture taken on March 25, 2024 shows a grassland earless dragon lizard at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve located on the outskirts of the Australian capital city of Canberra. (AFP)

Australia's grassland earless dragon is no bigger than a pinkie when it emerges from its shell, but the little lizard faces an enormous challenge in the years ahead: avoiding extinction.

As recently as 2019, scientists in Canberra counted hundreds of grassland earless dragons in the wild. This year, they found 11.

In other areas of the country, the lizard has not been seen for three decades.

The earless dragon -- which is light brown and has long white stripes down its body -- measures about 15 centimeters (the size of a US$1 bill) when fully grown.

It lacks an external ear opening and functional eardrum, hence the name.

Australia has four species of earless dragons. Three are critically endangered, the highest level of risk, while the fourth is endangered.

The critically endangered dragons will likely be extinct in the next 20 years without conservation efforts.

"If we properly manage their conservation, we can bring them back," said University of Canberra Professor Bernd Gruber, who is working to do just that.

Breeding programs

Australia is home to thousands of unique animals, including 1,130 species of reptiles that are found nowhere else in the world.

Climate change, invasive plants and animals, and habitat destruction -- such as the 2019 bushfires, which burned more than 19 million hectares (46 million acres) -- have pushed Australia's native species to the brink.

In the past 300 years, about 100 of Australia's unique flora and fauna species have been wiped off the planet.

To save the earless dragons there are several breeding programs under way across Australia, including a bio-secure facility in Canberra's bushlands, which Gruber is overseeing.

On shelves are dozens of tanks that house the lizards -- one to each container -- with a burrow, grass and heat lamps to keep them warm.

The biggest problem is matchmaking, with the territorial female lizards preferring to choose their mates.

This means that scientists must introduce different male lizards to the female until she approves.

If that was not hard enough, scientists must also use genetic analysis to determine which lizards are compatible together and ensure genetic diversity in their offspring.

At any one time, the breeding programs around Australia can have up to 90 earless dragons, which will eventually be released back into the wild.

At the moment, Gruber is looking after more than 20 small lizards that have just hatched. Scientists almost missed the tiny eggs until three weeks ago.

"There is a sense of hope looking over them," he told AFP.

Habitat destruction

Despite the efforts of scientists, the lizards are contending with a shrinking habitat and a changing climate.

Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Peta Bulling said the lizards only live in temperate grasslands, most of which have been destroyed by urban development.

Only 0.5 percent of grasslands present at the time of European colonization still exist.

Without the lizards, Australia's alpine grasslands could look vastly different.

"We don't understand everything the grassland earless dragons do in the ecosystem, but we can make guesses they play an important role in managing invertebrate populations. They live in burrows in the soil, so they are probably aerating the soil in different ways too," she told AFP.

Bulling said that while it was important to bring the lizard back, it was also vital to protect their habitats, without which the newly saved lizards would have nowhere to live.

"They are highly specialized to live in their habitat but they will not adapt quickly to change," she said.

Last year, scientists rediscovered a small number of another kind of earless dragons after 50 years in an area that is being kept secret for conservation reasons.

Resources are being poured into understanding just how big that population is and what can be done to protect it.


France, Brazil Announce $1.1 Billion Investment Plan for the Amazon 

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron look at a tree canopy at the Combu Island, near Belem, Brazil, March 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron look at a tree canopy at the Combu Island, near Belem, Brazil, March 26, 2024. (Reuters)
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France, Brazil Announce $1.1 Billion Investment Plan for the Amazon 

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron look at a tree canopy at the Combu Island, near Belem, Brazil, March 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron look at a tree canopy at the Combu Island, near Belem, Brazil, March 26, 2024. (Reuters)

The Brazilian and the French presidents on Tuesday announced a plan to invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in the Amazon, including parts of the rainforest in neighboring French Guiana.

The two countries' governments said in a joint statement the money will be spread over the next four years to protect the rainforest. It will be a collaboration of state-run Brazilian banks and France's investment agency. Private resources will also be welcomed, Brazil and France said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are meeting this week to revive the relationship between the countries after years of frictions with former President Jair Bolsonaro, deepen cooperation to protect the rainforest and boost trade.

Macron started his three-day visit to Brazil in the Amazon city of Belem, where he met his long-time ally Lula. The French president then took a boat to the Combu island to meet with Indigenous leaders.

Both Macron and Lula saw a protest by Greenpeace Brazil with banners that read “No oil in the Amazon.” Brazil’s government has contemplated allowing the tapping of oil in a region close to the Para state, where Belem lies.

Lula said during a speech that Macron's visit is part of a global effort to beef up rainforest protections.

“We want to convince those who have already deforested that they need to contribute in an important way to countries that still have their forests to keep them standing,” Lula said in a speech next to the French president.

Macron's office prior said to the trip that a potential European trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur won’t be on the agenda. The French president is an opponent of such an agreement as long as South American producers don’t respect the same environment and health standards as Europeans, after farmers raised concerns during protests across France and Europe.

The French president decorated Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire with the prestigious Legion of Honor medal for efforts at conserving the rainforest.

“You were in Europe and I promised to come here to your forest and be with your people in this forest that is coveted,” Macron told the Indigenous leader, according to French radio RFI. “President Lula and I have a common cause for one of our friends in this land that belongs to you.”

Lula and Macron will seek to “set a common course” to fight both climate change and poverty, Macron’s office said, as Brazil is to host the summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Rio de Janeiro in November and UN climate talks in Belem next year.

On Wednesday, Macron and Lula will launch a diesel-powered submarine built in Brazil with French technology at the Itaguai shipyard outside Rio de Janeiro. The French president will then head to metropolis Sao Paulo to meet with Brazilian investors. On Thursday, the French president will head to Brasilia to again meet with Lula.