Red Sea coral to get extra protection from tourists

• World’s 4th largest reef system
• 30% of coastline protected
• Climate change is main threat

Saudi Arabia has vowed to implement a series of measures to protect its Red Sea coral reef over the next five years as it pushes ahead with major tourism projects in the area.

But experts have warned that Saudi coral remains at risk, even with major spending policies. 

According to the National Red Sea Sustainability Strategy, announced on December 4, the government will increase protected areas from 3 to 30 percent of the Red Sea coastline and raise the share of renewables in energy production to 50 percent. 

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastline extends 1,830km from the Jordanian border to Jazan next to Yemen. The Red Sea, which also borders Egypt, Sudan and Yemen, is home to the world’s fourth-largest barrier reef system, with 6 percent of global coral reefs. 

The area includes three giga-projects that are part of the kingdom’s $1.3 trillion economic expansion plan – Neom, Red Sea Global and Jeddah Central. 

“The kingdom also reaffirms its commitment to a sustainable future for the Red Sea, and we look forward to everyone’s cooperation in protecting our Red Sea coast,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a statement issued to Saudi official media. 

Attacks over the past year by Houthi rebels in Yemen against Red Sea shipping have created risks of oil spillage that could impact Red Sea coasts. 

John Pagano, Red Sea Global’s CEO, said the Red Sea giga-project – which aims to complete 79 hotels at two locations by 2030 – was acutely aware of the oil slick risk. 

“At RSG, we have installed radar and remote sensors that serve as an early detection system for oil spills, along with routine marine patrols to support our monitoring efforts,” he said, adding that the giga-project is integral to the Saudi government’s Red Sea strategy.  

They include a publicly accessible marine life institute – the Corallium – that will also conduct research, a fully solar-powered energy supply, conservation of 50 million mangroves and planting of some 30 million plants in what RSG calls the region’s largest landscape nursery. 

Pagano said that when it opens next year the institute will mix scientific work with an interactive, immersive educational element for visitors to “change their perspective and commit their own efforts to restoring ocean health.” 

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Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter and a member of the G20 group of countries, is trying to position itself as a leader in green industries as well as tourism, including the “blue economy” of marine and freshwater conservation. 

However, between 2009 and 2018 around 14 percent of the world’s coral reefs were lost as a result of global warming and human activity. Experts say that despite good intentions, tourism harms coral. 

Environmental economist Peter Robinson of VU University Amsterdam said green tourism and recreational diving are still likely to cause water pollution and sedimentation, countering the benefits of creating protected zones. 

“Coastal tourism can cause an increase in things that would be considered threats to reefs,” he said, adding that special areas are “inherently difficult and costly to monitor”.

Robinson recently led a global survey of 1,000 people in 12 countries that found that public willingness to pay for coral reef preservation tends to rise to politically actionable levels only once the damage is done. 

The greatest threat to the world’s reefs comes from climate change, he added. “Local management is important but without more coordinated global efforts to cut emissions, protected areas are generally not the answer for saving reefs,” Robinson said.