The Unfenced Desert Towards a strategy for eco ... - Nwrc.gov.sa

departments of Planning and Protected Areas, Research and Studies, and Monitoring,
with input from research staff of the King Khaled Wildlife Research Center and the
World Conservation Union (IUCN) adviser. At this meeting draft guidelines for ecotourism
were distributed for discussion. The results of these discussions are summarised
below. Meeting minutes were drawn up and distributed to group members for further
input, and a report was presented to the NCWCD Secretary General.
Summary of discussions
General tourism issues; scale and scope of tourism in wildlife protected areas
The group endorsed the need for the NCWCD to guide the national development of
tourism through adoption of minimum impact guidelines and setting examples of best
practise. However, there was some concern over whether wildlife protected areas, chosen
to protect key species and their habitats, were appropriate locations for the development
of tourism.
It was suggested that it was important that the NCWCD “have a say from the start” over
how natural resources are exploited by the tourism industry, and that while one focus of
the NCWCD would be on protected areas, these represented only one point on a
spectrum of natural resource uses. The point was made that eco-tourism is often
characterised by low visitor numbers and as such could be appropriate for protected
areas, whereas larger scale nature-based tourism could and should be developed by the
NCWCD through wildlife parks, particularly in order to educate the wider public on
environmental issues.
There was discussion concerning whether small tourist groups could generate sufficient
revenue and other benefits, particularly for local communities. There would be scope for
the development by local communities of subsidiary attractions, but the very real
problem of social and cultural impacts would remain.
The need for the NCWCD to gain experience in developing and implementing tourism
projects was stressed by the group. This may include examination of existing successful
nature-based tour operators, e.g. Golden Eagle Travel (brochures provided to the group
by Mr Ady), and especially training. Dr Seddon advised the group that the USA-based
Eco-tourism Society (TES) runs training workshops on eco-tourism project
development.
International tourism development in Saudi Arabia.
Recently the Saudi Government has opened the way for limited, regulated international
tourism through sponsor companies. The group considered this to present an
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