Across peninsular Arabia there are people who remember life in
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
of their youth – has been forgotten.
As governments, corporations, organizations and individuals throughout
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
inestimably valuable natural heritage.
What relevance do such thoughts have to eco-tourism or wildlife
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
a vital aspect of Arab culture and heritage.
Despite the oil-age, notwithstanding the rise in population, and
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
that projects such as Operation Oryx demand.
The worldwide tourism industry is likely to double in size over
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
a killing of the goose that laid the golden egg!
Professor Abdulaziz H. Abuzinada