Biodiversity initiatives
We strive to create a culture that prioritizes understanding of ecological habitats, their plants and animals, and promotes their protection.
Having a sound knowledge of the distribution and abundance of the Kingdom’s biodiversity is essential for natural resource management and biodiversity protection. In addition, targeted monitoring is required to measure and ensure the effectiveness of any implemented management actions. This is why we map and monitor significant biodiversity groups such as marine turtles and migratory birds.
In 2019 we completed an ambitious project to map and document every species of bird within Saudi Arabia. Birds represent more than 70% of all terrestrial vertebrates within the Kingdom, and are solid indicators of ecosystem health. GIS spatial layers that map the distribution and abundance of all 499 bird species in the Kingdom have been developed, along with high-quality photographs of every species. Information about the seasonal timing of arrival and breeding within the Kingdom has been collated for all bird species, as well as information about their breeding biology, social behavior, and foraging ecology.
The spatial data from this mapping and monitoring initiative have been analyzed using GIS programs to develop the most accurate heat maps of bird abundance ever developed for Saudi Arabia. These heat maps can be used to determine areas of high biodiversity value, by identifying locations containing particularly high species diversity, endemic or threatened species, and important locations for migratory birds across the annual calendar. These data can then be used to inform decision-makers about habitat quality, thereby potentially influencing project site-selection and/or necessary mitigation measures.
Promoting biodiversity awareness
We are dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of biodiversity protection in Saudi Arabia, and have long been conducting initiatives to engage our employees and communities in biodiversity protection.
The website sections highlighted below underline the significance of protecting biodiversity and engaging communities in our biodiversity protection initiatives across a diverse array of the Kingdom’s habitats, including sand seas, highlands, scrublands, wetlands, coasts, and marine ecosystems.
Saudi Arabia’s biodiversity in numbers
499
Bird species
117
Mammal species
107
Reptile species
2,400
Flowering plant species
266
Coral-reef species in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf
1,230
Fish species