RIYADH — The National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC) will launch an awareness campaign tomorrow through its official social media platforms to highlight the significance of forests in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The campaign, announced by SPA, aims to emphasize forests’ role in maintaining ecological balance and mitigating the effects of climate change. It coincides with the International Day of Forests, which is annually celebrated worldwide on March 21. The center is turning to its official social media channels to carry the message, placing the Kingdom’s woodland resources in front of a digital audience on the same day the international occasion is observed.
Saudi Arabia has vast forest areas that are considered natural wealth and vital to environmental protection and sustainability efforts. How often do those who pass through the Kingdom’s woodland areas stop to consider what they are looking at? Forests play a crucial role in oxygen production, storing hundreds of tons of carbon, enhancing biodiversity, supporting food security, combating desertification, and alleviating the impacts of climate change. Each of those functions is named in the NCVC’s account of why the country’s trees matter, and each connects the forest to questions of air, food, water, and land.
Among the species the center singles out is the arak tree (Salvadora persica). Its fruit, known as “kabath,” serves as food for humans and animals alike. Economically, the tree’s parts are used in producing siwak — a traditional chewing stick from the arak tree — and natural oils, and it holds health value for promoting oral and dental health. The tree also has a religious significance, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Were it not a burden upon my nation, I would have ordered them to use the siwak before every prayer.” Does that combination of daily use, trade, and faith explain why the arak tree occupies such a distinct place in the story of Saudi vegetation?
NCVC continues to make efforts to restore and rehabilitate forests, having planted more than 3.5 million trees to date. The figure is the clearest measure the center offers of work already carried out on the ground. It also seeks to identify and protect ancient trees, safeguard forest areas with boundary markers and informational signs, and implement the strategic forest plan and the executive plan for rehabilitating and protecting valleys. Who decides which trees are old enough to be counted as ancient, and what does protection look like once a boundary marker is in place?
These efforts are part of the Saudi Green Initiative and Saudi Vision 2030, according to the center’s account. The center is also implementing the national forest survey project, establishing a national monitoring system for forest lands, and tracking forest fires. A survey, a monitoring system, and fire tracking together suggest a shift from planting alone toward knowing what exists and what threatens it. How much of the Kingdom’s forest land has yet to be mapped, and what happens when a fire is detected in an area that has not been surveyed?
The campaign arrives on a date fixed by international observance rather than by any single national event. The International Day of Forests is celebrated worldwide on March 21 each year, and the NCVC’s social media push is timed to that calendar. What does a single day of online posts add to work measured in millions of planted trees and multi-year plans? The center’s stated aim is to highlight the significance of forests in Saudi Arabia and to emphasize their role in maintaining ecological balance and mitigating the effects of climate change — two outcomes that depend on what happens after the campaign ends.
Forests, in the center’s description, are natural wealth and vital to environmental protection and sustainability efforts. That framing places trees alongside other resources the Kingdom manages, and it links the woodland cover to food security and desertification as well as to carbon and biodiversity. Can a country known mainly for its desert landscapes also be a country of forests? The NCVC’s answer, in the material it released, is that vast forest areas exist and that they perform functions no other landscape performs in the same way.
The arak tree’s double life — as a source of kabath for humans and animals and as the raw material for siwak and natural oils — illustrates how a single species can carry economic, health, and religious weight at once. The hadith quoted in the center’s material gives the tree a place in worship as well as in daily hygiene. What other species in Saudi Arabia’s forests carry that kind of layered value, and are they being identified and protected with the same attention?
On the operational side, the NCVC lists boundary markers and informational signs among its tools for safeguarding forest areas. Those are modest instruments compared with a national survey or a monitoring system, but they are the ones a visitor to a protected area would actually see. The strategic forest plan and the executive plan for rehabilitating and protecting valleys provide the framework the center says it is implementing. How are those plans translated into decisions about where planting happens next?
The national forest survey project and the national monitoring system for forest lands are both described as under implementation, alongside tracking of forest fires. Together they point to an effort to establish a baseline: what grows where, what condition it is in, and what events change it. Without such a baseline, the 3.5 million trees already planted would be difficult to assess against the forests that existed before. What would the survey need to show for the planting record to count as restoration rather than addition?
The center’s campaign is scheduled for tomorrow, one day before the international observance itself. The material released by SPA does not specify the campaign’s duration, the platforms it will use beyond the center’s official social media accounts, or the content it will publish. It also does not give a breakdown of the 3.5 million trees by species or location, nor does it state how many ancient trees have been identified so far or how many forest areas have been marked with boundaries and signs. Those details are not included in the announcement.
What the announcement does establish is a date, an actor, and a set of stated purposes. The NCVC will launch the campaign tomorrow. The occasion is the International Day of Forests on March 21. The purposes are to highlight the significance of forests in Saudi Arabia and to emphasize their role in ecological balance and climate change mitigation. The rest — the planting total, the ancient trees, the boundary markers, the strategic and executive plans, the survey, the monitoring system, and the fire tracking — forms the record the center points to as its ongoing work.
Readers following the campaign will see the center’s own account of why forests matter: oxygen, carbon storage, biodiversity, food security, desertification, and climate impacts. They will also see the arak tree presented as a case study in how a forest species can serve health, trade, and faith. Whether the campaign moves beyond awareness to measurable change is a question the announcement leaves open. For now, the center has set out what it intends to say and when it intends to say it, and it has attached that message to a day the world already marks.
What is the NCVC launching and when? The National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification will launch an awareness campaign tomorrow through its official social media platforms. The campaign aims to highlight the significance of forests in Saudi Arabia and to emphasize their role in maintaining ecological balance and mitigating the effects of climate change. It coincides with the International Day of Forests, which is annually celebrated worldwide on March 21. The center announced the campaign through the Saudi Press Agency.
Why does the arak tree stand out in the NCVC’s material? The arak tree (Salvadora persica) is particularly significant because its fruit, known as “kabath,” serves as food for humans and animals alike. Economically, the tree’s parts are used in producing siwak, a traditional chewing stick from the arak tree, and natural oils, and it holds health value for promoting oral and dental health. The tree also has religious significance, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Were it not a burden upon my nation, I would have ordered them to use the siwak before every prayer.”
What restoration work has the NCVC carried out so far? NCVC continues to make efforts to restore and rehabilitate forests, having planted more than 3.5 million trees to date. It also seeks to identify and protect ancient trees, safeguard forest areas with boundary markers and informational signs, and implement the strategic forest plan and the executive plan for rehabilitating and protecting valleys. These efforts are part of the Saudi Green Initiative and Saudi Vision 2030, according to the center’s account.
What monitoring projects is the center implementing? The center is implementing the national forest survey project, establishing a national monitoring system for forest lands, and tracking forest fires. Together these efforts point to building a baseline of what grows where, what condition it is in, and what events change it. The announcement does not state how much forest land has been surveyed so far or how many fires have been tracked.
What roles do forests play, according to the announcement? Saudi Arabia has vast forest areas considered natural wealth and vital to environmental protection and sustainability efforts. Forests play a crucial role in oxygen production, storing hundreds of tons of carbon, enhancing biodiversity, supporting food security, combating desertification, and alleviating the impacts of climate change. The campaign aims to emphasize these roles in maintaining ecological balance and mitigating climate change effects.
What details does the announcement not include? The material released by SPA does not specify the campaign’s duration, the platforms it will use beyond the center’s official social media accounts, or the content it will publish. It also does not give a breakdown of the 3.5 million trees by species or location, nor does it state how many ancient trees have been identified so far or how many forest areas have been marked with boundaries and signs.