RIYADH, 20 July 2004 — The National Commission for Wildlife Conservation (NCWCD) opened a new website for the Protected Areas Thematic Center (PATC) of West and Central Asia and North Africa (WESCANA) Region on Saturday.

The secretary-general of the NCWCD, Dr. Abdul Aziz Abuzinada, commissioned the new website, www.wescana-patc.org, in the presence of an invited audience of environmentalists including the adviser to the commission Prince Bandar ibn Saud.

“The new website is vital tool for the role of the PATC,” said Dr. Abuzinada told Arab News. “It will provide updated information on protected areas at regional and international levels.”

He added that it was a new mechanism to exchange information and to increase public awareness on environment, wildlife and natural resources.

PATC of the WESCANA region, headquartered in Riyadh, was established in 2002 following a memorandum of understanding signed between the commission and the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

The WESCANA region comprises 25 member countries extending from Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean through the Arabian Peninsula to Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

Dr. Abuzinada, who is also the vice president of IUCN, said the global agency recognizes Saudi Arabia’s efforts through NCWCD, which during the last 15 years had set up 16 protected areas spread over 84,000 square kilometers. This he said would be doubled in due course.

He said WESCANA is one of the most important regions of the IUCN and to accomplish its objectives a number of goals have been set including coordination and management of protected areas in the region and the provision of adequate training for IUCN members in the field of protected areas.

The Thematic Center coordinates with the member countries by providing technical assistance for implementing specific programs in the field of protected areas.

The Kingdom is among the first countries in the WESCANA region to have successfully carried out a program for re-introducing endangered species to the wild. It has the largest fenced protected area at Mahzat Al-Sayd in Taif which is home for several endangered species.

The NCWCD’s Training Center in Riyadh conducts refresher programs regularly to environmentalists in the region to keep them abreast of the latest advances in the field.