Saudi Arabia’s Ibex Reserve has been included in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) exclusive Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas.
The IUCN Green List inclusion represents a global acknowledgment by independent experts of the efficacy of Ibex Reserve’s management programmes and reflects the reserve’s success in meeting the Green List’s key criteria, which includes effective governance, transparency and accountability, management based on best available scientific expertise and local knowledge, consideration of social and economic context, and proactive planning.
The Green List includes fewer than 80 natural reserves out of more than 300,000 protected areas globally.
“The Ibex Reserve’s Green List status not only enhances its international standing but also drives forward our broader conservation and sustainable development initiatives. We are actively collaborating with our wildlife sector partners to bring all our national reserves up to this international standard,” said Dr. Mohammed Qurban, CEO, the Saudi National Center for Wildlife (NCW), which manages the Ibex Reserve.
The NCW currently manages 11 protected areas across Saudi Arabia, and has supported the expansion of the Kingdom’s marine protected areas from 3.6% to 6.5% and its terrestrial protected areas from 4.5% to 18.1% since 2017.
Saudi Arabia is now on track to reach the 30×30 goal enshrined in the UN’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
