His Excellency the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Center for Wildlife, Eng. Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Fadhli, approved the executive regulations for wildlife hunting for the environmental law (issued by Royal Decree No. M / 165 dated 11/19/1441 AH), which has been prepared By the Environment Agency of the Ministry in coordination with the National Center for Wildlife, and thus the regulation came into effect as of 6/4/1442 AH.
On this occasion, His Excellency the CEO of the National Center for Wildlife, Dr. Muhammad Ali Qurban, stated that the issuance of this regulation comes within the framework of the environmental law that achieves the Kingdom's vision 2030 in order to unify and support efforts to preserve the environment with a sustainable national strategy that achieves prosperity and community partnership for the present and the future generations.
His Excellency added that the regulation has defined the scope of the center's work in regulating the hunting of wildlife, specifying the species that are prohibited to be hunted in all parts of the kingdom and throughout the year, the species that are permitted to be hunted, determining the sites where hunting is permitted, the startup and end dates of hunting seasons, issuing hunting licenses, and determining the means and equipment that are permitted With regard to hunting and the means and equipment prohibited to be used in hunting, setting hunting rules, conditions and controls related to the mechanisms for granting hunting licenses and hunting reserves licenses and their regulations, determining control mechanisms and procedures, and coordinating with the Ministry of the Interior regarding the control of violations and the issuance of licenses for hunting firearms. The center organizes awareness-raising activities, eco-guiding, and media awareness campaigns.
His Excellency affirmed that the regulation permanently prohibits hunting endangered wild species such as wild angulates such as Arabian Oryx, Reem gazelle, Idmi gazelle, Nubian ibex, and endangered predators such as the Arabian leopard, striped hyena, Arabian wolf, Caracal, Jackal, Sand cat, Genet and Honey badger. The regulation also prohibits hunting of 19 species of endemic birds in the Kingdom and what is threatened migratory birds.
His Excellency explained that the new regulation, with what it stipulated of deterrent penalties for wildlife hunting offenses, gave a large room for organized and sustainable hunting. The penalties for the perpetrators of hunting offenses have been increased according to the type of violation and the type of wild species involved. The value of the fines for hunting offenses for a single organism ranged from 1000 Riyals fine when hunting forest pigeons or Pterocles birds and 3000 Riyals fine for hunting lizard, when hunting the Arabian leopard and the fine
is 400,000 Riyals, the fine for hunting the Arabian Oryx is 90,000 Riyals and the fine for hunting The Striped hyena, jackal, or Arabian wolf is 80,000 Riyals, the hunting fine of any of the caracals, sand cats, Wild cats, or the Porcupine is 70,000 Riyals, the fine for hunting of the Nubian ibex and any fox species is 60,000 Riyals, the fine for hunting of Idmi gazelle is 35,000 Riyals, and the fine for hunting of the Reem gazelle is 25,000 Riyals.