Saudi Arabia: NCVC Plans to Rehabilitate 1,000 Floodplains, Meadows with 5 Royal Reserves

The CNVC has signed several agreements with the development authorities of five reserves
The CNVC has signed several agreements with the development authorities of five reserves
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Saudi Arabia: NCVC Plans to Rehabilitate 1,000 Floodplains, Meadows with 5 Royal Reserves

The CNVC has signed several agreements with the development authorities of five reserves
The CNVC has signed several agreements with the development authorities of five reserves

The National Center for Vegetation Cover Development at Combating Desertification (NCVC) has organized a workshop to introduce the implementation plan to rehabilitate the floodplains and Meadows in partnership with five royal reserves.

The CNVC has signed several agreements with the development authorities of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve, King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve, Imam Turki Bin Abdullah Royal Reserve, Imam Abdulaziz Bin Mohammed Royal Reserve and King Khalid Royal Reserve to rehabilitate more than 1,000 floodplains and Meadows across the Kingdom.

The workshop discussed several main aspects about the goals of the initiative,

and the evaluation criteria for the techniques used in the rehabilitation process, the most important evaluation methods for the outcomes of the rehabilitation implementation’s, prominent areas of cooperation and partnership between the CNVC and the royal reserves, targeted development and community partnership.

The CEO of the National Center, Dr- Khalid Bin Abdullah Al-Abdul-Qadir, explained that the implementation of the first phase involves rehabilitating 100 floodplains and meadows by planting 12 million trees and shrubs and scattering seeds, and the use of rainwater harvesting techniques.

The area targeted for the rehabilitation exceeds 225,000 hectares of degraded lands within a single area with a total size that exceeds 1.9 million hectares of floodplains and meadows, which contributes to enhancing environmental sustainability, improving living quality and to achieve the Kingdom’s vision 2030 and the Saudi green initiative to plant 10 billion trees.

It also comes as a contribution of work on a rehabilitation initiative of floodplains and meadows which was launched by the minister of environment, water and culture last October, to rehabilitate 1000 floodplains and meadows across the Kingdom.



Police: Missing Surfer in Australia is Believed Dead in Shark Attack

A surfer rides a large wave at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
A surfer rides a large wave at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
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Police: Missing Surfer in Australia is Believed Dead in Shark Attack

A surfer rides a large wave at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
A surfer rides a large wave at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

A surfer missing in Australia is believed to have died in a shark attack, authorities said Friday, as they searched the waters where the man disappeared.
The 28-year-old was in the sea at a popular surf beach in South Australia where another man was killed by a white shark in 2023.
A witness who saw the shark attack on Thursday evening at Granites Beach, near the coastal town of Streaky Bay, rode into the sea on a jet ski and retrieved the man’s surfboard, Senior Constable Rebecca Stokes told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“But there was just no sign of this young man, there’s just been no sign of him,” Stokes told the ABC. “From witnesses’ descriptions we’re pretty confident that sadly he’s been killed by this shark.”
The beach was known to be frequented by sharks, Stokes said. She did not specify what species of shark was believed to be involved.
Emergency responders and volunteers were searching offshore on Friday for the local man and the beach was closed to the public. Police were preparing a coroner’s report, a statement said.
Shark attacks in Australia are rare, with 255 fatal bites recorded since 1791 in the country of 27 million people, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database.
But the state of South Australia has registered more episodes in the past two years than usual. There were five shark attacks of the state’s coast in 2023, three of them fatal and one at the same beach as Thursday’s incident.
Scientists at the time said they did not know the reason for the cluster. There was one non-fatal shark bite off South Australia’s coast in 2024.