The Royal Commission for Al-Ula (RCU) continues to work on re-balancing the ecosystems of the Sharaan Natural Reserve and wide-scale development of its landscapes, a project that aims to re-establish the rich diversity of the plant and wildlife that had flourished in the area hundreds of years ago.
The implementation of the first stages of the Commission’s plan has been successful. In addition to the birth of the first generation of gazelles, the vegetation that these gazelles need to survive has also been restored.
Resettling Arabian leopards, whose collective survival requires a gazelle population, is part of the Royal Commission strategy’s third master plan.
Sharaan is classified as a natural reserve due to its geology, topography, and environmental characteristics.
In addition to the Commission strategy’s three main plans, this work aims to make the Al-Ula governorate a global destination for cultural, natural heritage and environmental tourism, providing visitors with a unique experience, with visitors and the Arab residents living side by side, surrounded with human history and a rich natural environment.
The Royal Commission for Al-Ula signed an agreement with Panther, a global wild cat conservation organization that manages initiative in 39 states, to benefit from the advanced technology and experience of the organization, which includes biologists, legal experts, and wild cat protection experts, as part of the efforts of the RCU’s work on Arabian leopard conservation.
Frank Rietkerk, the Captive Breeding Manager at RCU, believes that the measures that the Commission has already taken to protect gazelles are a testament to its success in restoring the Al-Ula’s wildlife after wanton grazing and other human activity had damaged its environmental stability.
Moreover, the monitoring framework will mainly depend on a wide network of motion-detecting cameras, which will be extremely consequential to the number of surviving leopards in the region. Frank Rietkerk emphasizes that this process takes long-term sustainability into account.
"We’re not looking to take a hands-on approach to supporting the leopards; we want to see this ecosystem function as it did before humans disrupted it. That’s why it’s so important to re-balance the whole food chain, from the plant-life, to herbivores and up to the leopards and other predators," he noted.
