RIYADH, 18 August 2004 — The Kingdom is seeking to promote awareness of environment and wildlife conservation among the region’s children.
The National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) will come out with a new design for the children’s supplement of its “Al-Wudaihi” quarterly magazine to attract their attention. Al-Wudaihi is the first environmental magazine to be published in the region.
“Children are the future generation who would take up the challenges in the field of wildlife conservation and development and by educating the student population on wildlife conservation, the Kingdom will reap good rewards,” NCWCD Secretary-General Dr. Abdulaziz Abu Zinada told Arab News.
He added that the next issue of the Al-Wudaihi which will be published in early September will have a new look to attract the children and encourage them to read more on these subjects.
The special children’s issue will be distributed in schools in the Kingdom and abroad, he said, adding the publication would solicit contributions from children in the 5-16 age group.
Abu Zinada said the forthcoming issue of Al-Wudaihi would carry a special interview with the Chairman of the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT) Prince Sultan ibn Salman who spoke on promoting eco-tourism.
The NCWCD has drawn up a master plan for developing ecotourism in the Kingdom. The plan covers 102 protected areas, which covers some 10 percent of the Kingdom’s land area, will eventually be thrown open to the private sector for promotion on a commercial basis. These areas form part of the 10,000 potential tourist spots surveyed by the SCT.
This year, the NCWCD launched a public awareness campaign on environment and wildlife conservation among secondary school students who lived in the vicinity of protected areas.
The commission chose students from leading schools in the region with their teachers for the project. The programs included lectures, quiz competitions and field visits to the protected areas.
