Arabian leopard - Printable Version

You could see that as a low point. The leopard, which used to roam from the mountains of Anatolia to the shores of the Red Sea, is confined now to a few remote places in Oman, Yemen, UAE and the KSA. When it does encounter humans and their livestock, the inevitable result is fatal.

Perhaps that leopard did not die in vain, however. It proved that leopards were still present, albeit in heartbreakingly small numbers, in the Arabian Peninsula. In the years since, a huge and inspiring international effort has begun to preserve, breed and then release leopards back into the wild.

But what kind of wild? It isn’t just hunters and farmers who have pushed leopards to the extreme margins of survival. The great Arabian desert has become progressively more desertified, as overgrazing by goats and camels denudes the land. The species that leopards rely on as prey have themselves been pushed further towards extinction.

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To bring back the leopard, first one must reintroduce its prey: a gazelle in the Sharaan nature reserves of AlUla

(David Chancellor)

In AlUla, an area of incredible natural beauty and priceless heritage in north-west Saudi Arabia, they are preparing a home for the leopard. This begins with developing protected areas: currently AlUla has five nature reserves covering 50% of the county (around 12,500 km2). The aim is to increase that to 85%, covering 20,000 km2.

The rewilding efforts will be focused on the best and most suitable 65,000 hectares for wildlife, repopulating these zones with prey species like onyx and ibex. Once the habitat and grazing animals are reestablished, and only then, can the conservationists begin to think of releasing leopards from centres such as the Royal Commission for AlUla’s (RCU) breeding facility in Taif.

The desert does bloom: Rewilding AlUla

An inspiring project is bringing native flora and fauna – and hopefully even the Arabian leopard – back to the sands of northwest Saudi Arabia.

[b]The UK’s leading advocate of rewilding calls it ‘one of the most inspired projects in the whole world’. We are talking about the extraordinary efforts to transform AlUla, an area of ancient desert and oasis in northwest Saudi Arabia.[/b]

Last month, delegates at the International Exhibition and Forum on Afforestation Technologies, held in Riyadh, heard just how ambitious the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) plan is. By 2030, 65,000 hectares of degraded land will be ‘rehabilitated’. To put that in context, that is exactly the same area of Outstanding Natural Beauty managed by our own National Trust.

You can call the process rehabilitating or rewilding, but neither word captures the unique nature of this project. The human population is as important to the regeneration narrative as the flora and fauna.

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Two thousand years ago, this would have been farmland but now much of the AlUla region is desert

The land around AlUla has been overgrazed by livestock, like these Najdi sheep – highly prized for their meat, milk and thick woolly coats

Put aside images of caravanserai and lines of camels silhouetted against the dunes. Today’s nomads are city dwellers who drive convoys of huge trucks and thousands of goats. They descend on a fertile area, graze it to the bone, then move on.

The winds blow, the topsoils vanish, nutrients in the soil are washed into the wadis. You’re left with sand, which can heat up to 100C during the day, shrivelling root systems. The desert sprawls ever wider.

Over the past few years, farmers and horticulturalists have significantly improved the vegetation cover. Native grazing animals like Nubian ibex and idmi gazelles have been slowly reintroduced.

*This image is copyright of its original author

[b]How to Rewild a Desert, step 1: Rehabilitate... AlUla’s nature reserves protect former grazing land to allow the overused landscapes to return to a more natural state, while giving local people employment as guides and rangers.[/b]

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The vision that the article conveys is inspiring, in the face of all the stakeholders involved and the notion of tourism strengthening this project, with support in culture, history, environment and sustainability.

If the goals are achieved, I have no doubt that it will be a milestone in the history of conservation.

It's surprises like this that feed our hope for the future.