Today, The Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture, His Excellency Eng. Abdulrahman Alfadley participated in the World Economic Forum's dialogue session titled 'Reviving Earth: Mobilizing for a Restored World' in Riyadh.
During the session, Alfadley highlighted Saudi Arabia's comprehensive approach to addressing land degradation and desertification, which involves implementing various initiatives and developing legislation and institutional frameworks.
"Protecting land and water is a key priority for Saudi Arabia. We reached great achievements through ambitious initiatives such as the Saudi Green Initiative, grazing management, and implementing a cloud seeding program to enhance water sources," Alfadley added. "Other efforts include expanding vegetation cover, combating desertification, rehabilitating agricultural terraces, and improving water resource management and waste treatment through a circular economy. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is hosting numerous national, regional, and international events focused on environmental protection, including the launch of Environment Week today."
Minister Alfadley highlighted that land degradation is a global issue that affects food insecurity, higher food prices, climate change impacts, environmental risks, and biodiversity loss.
Furthermore, Alfadley discussed the Kingdom's initiatives to attract private-sector investments in land rehabilitation, stressing the integration of environmental efforts into corporate social responsibility. Approximately 50% of the afforestation targets for the initial phase have been achieved through private sector contributions, focusing on creating investment opportunities and supporting eco-tourism.
In his closing remarks, His Excellency emphasized the importance of strengthening regional and international cooperation to combat land degradation and drought. In this context, the Kingdom launched the Middle East Green Initiative to foster regional collaboration to increase vegetation and decrease land degradation. Additionally, Saudi Arabia initiated the Global Initiative to Reduce Land Degradation under the G20 framework and KSA will host the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) in December. These efforts underscore the Kingdom's commitment to collaborating with all nations in adopting ambitious goals and initiatives to strengthen international cooperation in reducing land degradation and mitigating drought impacts.