The King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority announced the completion of the second phase of the “Rangers Development Program,” which involved training 56 individuals from the rangers’ team at its headquarters in Riyadh. The aim was to enhance their capabilities to strengthen their role in protecting and developing the environment in accordance with the best local and international practices, aligning with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the comprehensive strategic targets for 2030 for royal reserves.
The second phase follows the first phase of the program held May 29. Rangers play a pivotal role in environmental protection and raising awareness among reserve visitors. Therefore, the authority worked to select them from local communities to empower them and involve them in protecting and developing the environment, preserving the safety and security of visitors and users of the reserve, raising awareness about behaviors that impact the environment and wildlife, monitoring and recordin
g various violations, assessing the level of cleanliness within the reserve, and maintaining the security and safety of the authority’s facilities.
In the second phase, local and international specialists and experts delivered several courses, totaling 16 training hours. The courses covered: identifying types of plants and wildlife, community development, dealing effectively with violators, managing effective patrols, identifying hunting sites (vital sites), the mechanism for reporting violations, knowing and monitoring the impact of violators on wildlife, introducing them to the concept of the visitor experience and dealing with it, and photography.
The authority aimed to establish and qualify rangers to be the pioneers of nature conservation, in line with international standards and specifications. In February 2023, it completed the qualification of the first group of 28 “reserve rangers,” who underwent an intensive training program that lasted for more than 150 theoretical and practical training hours. T
o improve the quality of its output, the training program was divided into two parts: “field training” and “electronic training.” At the end of the program, the trainees obtained a “Certified Environmental Inspector” license from the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC).
Source: Saudi Press Agency