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Saudi Arabia Participates in Int'l Conference on Combating Sand, Dust Storms

File Photo: Dust storm in Baghdad/ AP
File Photo: Dust storm in Baghdad/ AP
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Saudi Arabia Participates in Int'l Conference on Combating Sand, Dust Storms

File Photo: Dust storm in Baghdad/ AP
File Photo: Dust storm in Baghdad/ AP

CEO of the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) has highlighted the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's significant efforts to mitigate climate change and combat sand and dust storms, citing the Saudi Green Initiative, introduced by the Saudi Crown Prince in March 2021, which is designed to tackle both local and global environmental challenges.

In a key address at the International Conference on Combating Sand and Dust Storms held in Tehran Dr. Ayman bin Salem Ghulam emphasized that the Kingdom took the lead in recognizing the pressing need for collective action.

It demonstrated its commitment through various initiatives and investments, including the establishment of the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification in March 2019.

This initiative aims to increase green areas and rehabilitate degraded plant sites, SPA reported.

Dr. Ghulam further stated that the Kingdom's ambitious plans involve planting 10,000,000,000 trees and restoring over 40,000,000 hectares of degraded lands in the coming decades. These efforts are designed to combat desertification, reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and promote biodiversity, he said.

He indicated that the Kingdom launched the Middle East Initiative in April 2021, as part of its support for the Saudi Green Initiative. This initiative aims to plant 50,000,000,000 trees, which is equivalent to five percent of the global afforestation target – the most comprehensive program of its kind worldwide.

Dr. Ghulam further mentioned that the Kingdom has set up the Regional Climate Change Center, the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Regional Center, and the Regional Cloud Seeding Program as integral components of the Green Middle East Initiative.

Moreover, the Kingdom has made significant investments in research and technology in collaboration with regional and international partners. He added that the Kingdom has also signed agreements with neighbouring countries to strengthen cooperation in early warning systems, research, and technology transfer.

He emphasized that these efforts underscore the Kingdom's dedication to sustainable development and its commitment to tackling challenges related to climate change, sand, and dust storms.

He also highlighted the recent recognition by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) of the consultation and evaluation system for warning of sand and dust storms for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as one of its regional headquarters.

Additionally, he said the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Regional Center received accreditation as one of its regional centres by the WMO.

The CEO of the National Center of Meteorology called for attending the Saudi-hosted first international conference on sand and dust storms in the Arabian Peninsula next March, and the 16th for the parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification end of next year.

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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."