EDITORS COMMENT 4

the era before the discovery of oil set in train inevitable developments

that have culminated in the beautiful cities, comfortable houses,

cultivated gardens and immaculate road systems which characterize

the infrastructure of modern-day Arabia. Among this older generation

there can be discerned the contrasting emotions of pride in all

that has been achieved during their lives, tinged with a bitter

sadness that Arabia’s vast and beautiful natural world – the world

Arabia demonstrate increasing concern for environmental matters

and struggle to come to terms with the issues, they are expressing,

in part, their inner feelings that the rush for modernity has

created almost as many problems as it has solved. There is a growing

awareness of the need to conserve what remains of the peninsula’s

natural world and of the urgent necessity to ensure that today’s

young people gain a deeper appreciation of the region’s wildlife

so that they may take over the responsibility of protecting an

travel in Arabia, the central theme of this issue? They provide

a background against which the conservation movement has been

working in Arabia and perhaps help to explain the increasingly

powerful support that wildlife conservation and environmental

protection is receiving. The desire to conserve nature, and to

protect wildlife, runs deep in the hearts of many Arabian people.

Not alone is it an important element of Islam, but it is also

in defiance of the global impact of man, Arabia still possesses

many natural gems. There are places where wildlife reigns supreme

and where man seldom ventures. There are places where nature has

been protected from the potentially devastating impact of direct

human interference and there are species that would no longer

inhabit the peninsula if it was not for man’s efforts to turn

back the clock and to regain something of Arabia’s pre-oil natural

wealth. The challenge facing us all is how to ensure that wildlife

continues to flourish in the deserts, mountains and seas of Arabia.

Unless nature and wildlife remain at the top of the agenda, as

a valued and appreciated natural resource, it seems likely that

uncontrolled developments and harmful activities will continue

to erode away at the edges of natural Arabia until little of what

now exists remains. As for turning back the clock, there would

be little chance of that happening without the great public support

the next ten years. By 2010 almost a billion people a year will

be taking international journeys. Across the whole range of the

tourism industry, eco-tourism is its fastest growing sector. There

is little doubt that visitors to Arabia will show an increasing

interest in the region’s natural assets. Arabia has a great deal

to offer in this regard, as the pages of this magazine amply illustrate.

Wise management of these resources, stimulated by a growing appreciation

of their real value in monetary terms, as well as their irreplaceable

importance at the centre of Arabian traditions and culture, will

hopefully lead to successful policies of protection for nature

combined with, and perhaps funded in part by, sustainable eco-tourism.

The alternative seems to be an uncontrolled race to exploit wildlife,

leading, as has happened in so many places around the world, to