SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Saudi Arabia is committed to protecting 30 percent of its terrestrial and marine area by 2030, reiterated a top official at the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP27, being held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The Kingdom currently has 16 percent terrestrial and 5.5 percent marine protected areas. The roadmap details were revealed to Arab News by the top official of Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Wildlife, which is also participating in the Saudi Green Initiative, an ambitious program launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year. “Our commitment in the country is to reach 30 percent terrestrial and 30 percent marine and protected areas,” said Ahmad Alboug, general manager of the terrestrial wildlife conservation department at NCW. “So, our strategy and roadmap are to reach 22 percent in the terrestrial by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030,” he added. Alboug revealed that the Kingdom has similar plans for the marine areas and is hoping to reach 24 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030. “When we are talking about the size of the protected areas compared to the size of the country, we have seen before the Saudi Vision 2030, only about 4 percent of the terrestrial land was protected, and from 2016 up to date, we reached to 16 plus percent and our target is to reach 30 percent,” he revealed. For the marine protected areas, he said they were at 2.5 percent before the Saudi Vision that was announced in 2016. “Right now, we are talking about 5.5 percent, and we are (aiming to) reach 30 percent by 2030,” Alboug added. This is one of three initiatives launched by the center, the wildlife official said, with the second initiative related to the conservation and rehabilitation of affected habitats in marine and coastal areas. The third initiative is “related to the captive breeding of endangered indigenous species and reintroducing them back to the wild to get sustainable populations in their natural habitats.” “So far, we have different captive breeding programs for different species of angulates, like the Arabian oryx, Nubian ibex, two species of Arabian gazelles and sand gazelles,” he explained. Alboug said the breeding programs include the houbara bustard and the black ostrich. “We are hoping in the future to get what we are planning for,” he said, adding that they already have the strategy to reach what they are working for captive breeding programs. “And, we already have the plan for the extra species to be in the programs, so we hope we can do much better than what we did already in the past,” Alboug concluded