Mr. Abdul Amir Al-Jazaf, Vice President of the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, confirmed that the “Second Arab Environmental Training Program” launched the activities of its second session (Management of Protected Areas), which it organizes for 3 days with the participation of representatives of government agencies, civil organizations, universities, institutes, scientific and research centers and volunteer groups from about 20 Arab countries, explaining that the program is organized by the Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Environmental Training at the Society during the period from February 14 to March 14 with the support of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences on the occasion of the national holidays.
M. Al-Jazaf explained that the second course, entitled “Management of Protected Areas,” presented by Dr. Nasser Al-Din Asad, a member of the NIST Scientific Research Group, highlighted that “the increasing pressures on the environment follow the increase in the population, currently 7.7 billion people and 9.7 billion people by 2030.“ He pointed out that the course reviewed ”the role of nature reserves in sustainable development, maintaining the stability of the environment represented by these areas, and consequently reducing floods or droughts and protecting the soil from erosion.”.
He added that Dr. Nasser Al-Din Asad addressed “ensuring production and the continuation of ecological balance, providing an opportunity for scientific research and monitoring wildlife and ecosystems and studying their relationship with human development, providing an opportunity to create and sustain the environment in remote areas and the optimal use of marginal lands, taking advantage of the opportunity for environmental awareness, and facilitating recreation and getting closer to the world of nature rich in beauty,” as well as “obstacles to protection, natural factors, choosing a suitable release site, the failure to complete the application of socio-economic studies, the lack of systems and legislation necessary to protect the species, diseases, the availability of appropriate numbers for release, awareness, lack of information, limited financial capabilities and technologies and capacity development, and mining or exploration activities for natural resources by influential companies.”.
The Vice President of the Environment Association stated that the session reviewed the objectives of organizing protection and the tools for assessing benefits by highlighting the available activities that add contributions to the main objectives of nature conservation, encouraging the creation and exchange of information, in addition to assessing the trends of benefits accruing to stakeholders in protected areas, reviewing the tangible and intangible economic benefits of the protection process, as well as integrating the views of stakeholders with experts in the verification process, and benefiting from the views of stakeholders on the possibility of the protected area to generate profits, and easy to implement to achieve the protection objectives for a given area.
Engineer Al-Jazaf pointed out that “the program includes about 60 hours of intensive training, as well as practical workshops, dialogue sessions, addressing environmental issues and discussing proposed solutions. It also includes, in addition to the “Coastal Area Management” course and the “Protected Area Management” course, a course on “Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in the Environment,” presented by Nawaf Al-Muwail, and a course on “Knowledge and Challenges of Climate Change,” presented by the Director of Programs and Activities and Board Member of the Association, Janan Behzad.”.
