Saudi Arabia registers 10 specialists as Arabic WOCAT land-management experts

Saudi Arabia has registered 10 specialists in the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) global sustainable land-management database, according to a Saudi Press Agency (SPA) English report published on 25 October. SPA describes the registration as making the Kingdom the first Arab country with Arabic-language experts and reviewers for the platform. An official Arabic SPA report on the same milestone was published the previous day, 24 October; the 25 October English report is not the first public announcement.

The specialists were registered after a joint evaluation by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the WOCAT Secretariat. Five are expert reviewers responsible for technical review and quality assessment. The other five are Saudi national experts, tasked with national-level validation and approval of documented practices before publication on the global platform.

The National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification said the work received technical support from FAO through its partnership with WOCAT. It said the Arabic-language capacity will allow sustainable land-management practices to be documented and reviewed in Arabic under international standards, widening access to regional technical expertise and supporting land-restoration and anti-desertification efforts.

The earlier Arabic SPA report adds that the specialists completed a national training programme for WOCAT documentation reviewers. FAO organised the training in April 2026 under the Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Programme, in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and with cooperation from the vegetation-cover centre and the National Greening Programme.

That report says trainees came from government bodies, universities and technical institutions across Saudi Arabia. Their practical work covered WOCAT methods for documenting sustainable land-management techniques, drawing on rehabilitation experience from different ecological environments in the Kingdom. The aim is to connect field experience with the platform’s documentation, review and quality-assurance requirements.

The centre named the National Greening Programme, the vegetation-cover centre, King Saud University, King Faisal University and the General Authority for Irrigation among the represented institutions. It said the experts will review Saudi documentation and may support similar work elsewhere in the Arab region when needed. SPA also linked the milestone to the National Greening Programme’s recognition as a UN World Restoration Flagship at UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia in August; that earlier recognition is context, not a new October award.