The “Fagga Frenzy” is upon us again. It happens every year about this time when the rains swell the fungus (truffles) to the point where it reveals itself to the world by subtle humps and minute cracks in the desert surface. Families in the north and west of the country stream out of town in their SUVs and scour the ground for the delicacy. Abu Ali Island, north of Jubail for example, is a popular area as the churned and litter-strewn surface of the desert testifies when the families have returned home with their few scraps of fungus.
That permits have been issued to allow visitors into the protected area assumes rather too much environmental awareness and responsibility on the part of the fagga hunters. We speak based on the evidence of previous years in unregulated areas.
Dr. Abdul Aziz Abu Zinada, secretary-general of the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD), recently expressed the hope that, “permits will keep track of the visitors to monitor their activities inside the reserve.” It is not paper that does that; it is people. Will there be rangers monitoring the activity, guiding visitors to already fragile environments — fragile enough to be protected already from their attentions for most of the year? Rangers and wardens are already in short supply as evidenced by the instances of animals that are chased into and then hunted in the reserves.
The reason for the new permission to access the reserves is given as the desire to allow “the public to benefit from this natural food source without damaging the environment.” They can do that already by driving along the Abu Hadriya Road in the Eastern Province and buying boxes of the delicacies from roadside stalls, most or all collected from traditional and unprotected areas. Indeed, Al-Jouf, Al-Qasim, Al-Kharj and Najd Province in general are famous for them. The harvested fungi are sold in boxes at prices ranging from SR300 to SR1,500 in the open markets.
Dr. Abu Zinada said the permit plan had been introduced by directive from Prince Sultan, who is chairman of the commission’s management board. The prince wants to encourage sustainable use of natural resources and local people’s involvement in their management and harvesting.
That is certainly a sound idea. Considering the level of self-control that the average member of the public shows when something is for free, the level of environmental awareness and concern that he demonstrates in the disposal of his rubbish and the low level of responsibility he demonstrates for his surroundings, the damage to the protected areas will be far greater than any benefit to his nutrition. Is the average fagga hunting family ready for the exercise of well-informed self-control?