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Translation Forum to Discuss Challenges, Technologies in Riyadh

Titled “Translating the Future; Translation and Technology,” the forum is set to be held on November 3-4 at the headquarters of the education ministry.
Titled “Translating the Future; Translation and Technology,” the forum is set to be held on November 3-4 at the headquarters of the education ministry.
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Translation Forum to Discuss Challenges, Technologies in Riyadh

Titled “Translating the Future; Translation and Technology,” the forum is set to be held on November 3-4 at the headquarters of the education ministry.
Titled “Translating the Future; Translation and Technology,” the forum is set to be held on November 3-4 at the headquarters of the education ministry.

The Saudi capital is set to host the 2nd edition of the Translation Forum 2022, described as the largest translation gathering in the region, to discuss the modern trends and techs in the translation industry, and the new, promising opportunities offered by the technological advancement driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as highlighting the role of translation in enhancing the kingdom’s cultural position worldwide.

Saudi Arabia’s Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission announced the second Translation Forum in Riyadh. Titled “Translating the Future; Translation and Technology,” the forum is set to be held on November 3-4 at the headquarters of the education ministry.

“The translation sector is going through a golden stage and requires more organization to achieve a translation quality that reflects the advancement Saudi Arabia achieved in all sectors,” said Abdul Rahman al-Sayed, CEO of the Saudi Arabia Translation Association.

“The Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission has shouldered several responsibilities mainly empowering the individuals and entities working in translation, regulating the labor market, and controling the quality of translation,” he added.

Sayed noted that translation is a vital cultural sector that contributes significantly to the intellectual and educational scene. The Saudi translation sector has witnessed a number of initiatives, in addition to the Translation Forum, which explores the challenges and concerns of the sector, and the aspirations of translators.”

Among the initiative are “Tarjim.”

The Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission announced the program of the forum, featuring many topics and titles that will be discussed in workshops, discussion panels, training courses, and gatherings that will offer a great opportunity for those interested in the sector, in addition to meeting translation experts to discuss the future of the industry, and the challenges facing the practitioners.

The forum hosts different activities including nine panels that cover the key issues in the translation field; 10 workshops aimed at polishing the skills of practitioners and developing their skills, nationalizing websites and apps, promoting artificial intelligence use in translation, and Arabizing videogames; and three interactive workshops on each day that explore the modern translation techniques, and the computerized projects and functions in translation.

The forum will also celebrate the winners of the Translation Hackathon, which the commission organized in October. The Hackathon saw the participation of 34 teams, a total of 102 participants over four days. The winning teams will be honored on the forum’s closing ceremony on November 4.

The Saudi culture ministry has concentrated its efforts to enhance the kingdom’s position as a leading, digital reference in translation by launching the Arabic Translation Monitor initiative last week, the first regional translation entity in Saudi Arabia.

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Researchers Document Huge Drop in African Elephants in a Half Century

Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
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Researchers Document Huge Drop in African Elephants in a Half Century

Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo

African elephants are Earth's largest land animals, remarkable mammals that are very intelligent and highly social. They also are in peril. Fresh evidence of this comes in a study that documents alarming population declines at numerous sites across the continent over about a half century.

Researchers unveiled on Monday what they called the most comprehensive assessment of the status of the two African elephant species - the savanna elephant and forest elephant - using data on population surveys conducted at 475 sites in 37 countries from 1964 through 2016.

The savanna elephant populations fell by about 70% on average at the surveyed sites and the forest elephant populations dropped by about 90% on average at the surveyed sites, with poaching and habitat loss the main drivers. All told, there was a 77% population decrease on average at the various surveyed sites, spanning both species, Reuters reported.

Elephants vanished at some sites while their populations increased in other places thanks to conservation efforts.

"A lot of the lost populations won't come back, and many low-density populations face continued pressures. We likely will lose more populations going forward," said George Wittemyer, a Colorado State University professor of wildlife conservation and chair of the scientific board of the conservation group Save the Elephants, who helped lead the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Poaching typically involves people killing elephants for their tusks, which are sold illegally on an international black market driven mostly by ivory demand in China and other parts of Asia. Agricultural expansion is the top factor in habitat loss.

The forest elephant population is estimated to be about a third that of savanna elephants. Poaching has affected forest elephants disproportionately and has ravaged populations of both species in northern and eastern Africa.

"We have lost a number of elephant populations across many countries, but the northern Sahel region of Africa - for example in Mali, Chad and Nigeria - has been particularly hard hit. High pressure and limited protection have culminated in populations being extirpated," Wittemyer said.

But in southern Africa, elephant populations rose at 42% of the surveyed sites.

"We have seen real success in a number of places across Africa, but particularly in southern Africa, with strong growth in populations in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia. For populations showing positive trends, we have had active stewardship and management by the governments or outside groups that have taken on a management role," Wittemyer said.

The study did not track a continent-wide population tally because the various surveys employed different methodologies over different time frames to estimate local elephant population density, making a unified head count impossible. Instead, it assessed population trends at each of the surveyed sites.

A population estimate by conservationists conducted separately from this study put the two species combined at between 415,000 and 540,000 elephants as of 2016, the last year of the study period. It remains the most recent comprehensive continent-wide estimate.

"The loss of large mammals is a significant ecological issue for Africa and the planet," said conservation ecologist and study co-author Dave Balfour, a research associate in the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.

The world's third extant elephant species, the slightly smaller Asian elephant, faces its own population crisis, with similar factors at play as in Africa.

Of African elephants, Wittemyer said, "While the trends are not good, it is important to recognize the successes we have had and continue to have. Learning how and where we can be successful in conserving elephants is as important as recognizing the severity of the decline they have experienced."

Wittemyer added of these elephants: "Not only one of the most sentient and intelligent species we share the planet with, but also an incredibly important part of ecosystems in Africa that structures the balance between forest and grasslands, serves as a critical disperser of seeds, and is a species on which a multitude of other species depend on for survival."