The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia entrenched the principle of sustainable development through celebrating World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, which is celebrated tomorrow June 17, in a bid to raise awareness of aggravated dangers of desertification and raise awareness of the importance of maintaining biodiversity, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has exerted great efforts in fields of combating desertification and drought and caring for land resources, such as forests, pastures and agricultural lands. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and as part of Saudi Vision 2030, has focused its efforts to protect lands and natural resources from misuse and depletion, develop scientific research, establish centers concerned with fields related to sustainable development and combating the depletion of natural resources, and work to avoid reasons for land depletion, desertification and losing biodiversity, so as to create a proper environment that guarantees decent living for all in the present and the future for the next generations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Implementing regulation for the development of the green cover and combating desertification, which was announced by the Ministry, aims at setting procedures to identify and classify green cover and desertified lands, procedures to develop and protect their living and non-living contents and improve them at the qualitative and quantitative levels, rehabilitate desertified sites and depleted green cover lands, organize the establishment of forests and grazing reserves, as well as national, wildlife and geological parks and invest in them and their sustainable administration according to the accredited regulations. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made several steps in combating desertification, enhancing the green cover, and protecting natural pastures, including the establishment of the National Center for Vegetation Cover and Combating Desertification in 2019, and the National Strategy for Natural Pastures, which aims at supervising and investing pastures, forests and national parks, and protecting the plant genetic resources and green cover outside protected areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and combating desertification.
