The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), which is regenerating a vast swathe of north-west Saudi Arabia as a leading global destination for cultural and natural heritage, has been officially announced as a government member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
This will support RCU’s strategy to conserve nature and wildlife by creating and activating nature reserves to protect ecosystems, fragile habitats and biodiversity; restoring and enhancing degraded ecosystems and ecological processes; and reintroducing native species.
While IUCN government members are primarily at the state level, RCU was granted government membership status in recognition of its commitment to conservation. RCU will now be able to not only draw upon the specialist knowledge of 18,000 IUCN experts, but also provide information on the results obtained from its work in AlUla to a global audience through, for example, attendance at the IUCN annual meetings and quadrennial congresses.