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Journal of Arid Environments (2003) 54: 225–236
doi:10.1006/jare.2001.0875
Biological resources conservation through
ecotourism development
M. Al-Sayed*- & A. Al-langawi?A
*Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P.O. Box 31195 Al-Sulaibikhat,
90802 Kuwait.
? Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Collage of Basic
Education-Science Department, P.O. Box 340 Dasman, 15454 Kuwait.
Wildlife conservation deals with resources that live and move. Fauna and flora
have a certain capacity for adaptation to environmental changes and strong
instinctive trends to fend for themselves. Indigenous species require very small
favors to stay alive. Their elemental need for food, water, and living spaces
should therefore be preserved. Biological resources conservation could be
achieved by natural selection and adaptation processes. Ecotourism is one way
to ensure the process of conservation (effective use of resources). There
are numerous administrative and technical means for conserving the biological
resources and biodiversity in the arid environments. Successful techniques
include Ecosystems identification, wildlife resources identification, geological
aspects of land use, and environmental feasibility of conservation and rehabilitation. This paper discusses the application of Ecotourism techniques that
ensure biodiversity conservation and elaborates their effectiveness under
the socio-climatic and socio-cultural conditions of Kuwait. A systematic plan is
presented to identify the steps of Ecotourism development and the cost of
biodiversity. Impacts on the society and other development activities due to the
diminishing size of these resources are also outlined.
2003 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: Adaptation; indigenous; conservation; natural selection; ecotourism; biodiversity; socio-climatic; socio-cultural
Introduction
Conservation is an old theme that has been played many times before to a somber and
depressing tune. We rather acknowledge that our environment has in some places been
spoiled beyond acceptable levels. We should also submit that we have in many places
and in several ways improved the natural environment as a habitat for man. Environmental degradation causes a variety of direct effects on mankind. Ecologists attempt
to anticipate the effects of environmental changes and to warn against such unwise
practices as overcrowding and overuse of our natural resources.
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2003 Elsevier Science Ltd.
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M. AL-SAYED & A. AL-LANGAWI
Given a modicum of habitable space, with food, water and shelter, wild things take
care of themselves. Therefore, conservation should accompany competitive enterprise.
A government has a unique responsibility as coordinators and supervisors of conservation programs and polices, but the actual applications of conservation practices develop
largely upon private enterprise. Hence we conserve a resource when we make the best
use of it, not when we let it be idle; conserve renewable resources when we use them
without destroying them and overtaxing their rejuvenation powers. For instance, soils
are conserved when they are so tilled that they produce good crops. Forests are
conserved when they are so managed that they produce one-generation useful trees.
There is a widespread recognition that the biophysical resource base is endangered by
development (depletion of natural resources stocks). Existing principles for environmental protection provide the basis for the formulation of a sustainable strategy (Clark,
1999). The consistent application of these principles, both generally, to islands and to
tourism, could contribute significantly towards enhancing sustainability. Therefore,
protection could be achieved through desirable forms of tourist development (Al-Sayed,
1999; Clark, 1999; Khuraibet, 1999). This is a characteristic of so-called soft tourism
(Clark, 1999; Al-Sayed, 1999). Many different forms of tourism have developed
claiming to be ‘sustainable’, for example ecotourism which is nature-based tourism that
involves education and identification of people’s habitats and is managed to be socially
and ecologically sound (Al-Sayed, 1999; Clark, 1999). Special interest tourism can
focus on a wide range of culture, nature and tourism professional interests.
In Kuwait, ‘Timed Tourism’ (Al-Sayed, 1999) is practiced unwittingly. It depends
largely upon several factors such as: national day, of state, religious celebrations and
climatic conditions. The aim of this paper is to develop ecotourism locations, which
preserve fauna and flora.
Conservation processes
Adaptation, natural selection
Surface geology of Kuwait shows that the northern parts of the country form a wadi
system (Wadi Al-Batin) with gravelly, sandy channels and tributaries, which mark an
initial stage of river development and is composed of homogeneous rocks of the Late
Pleistocene. However, the southern parts are featureless and covered by sandy to
gravelly soils. The rise and fall of snow limits along Al-Liyah Ridges, on the other hand,
is a very useful register of slowly changing climate in the region. This brief description
encourages decision-makers that the concept of natural selection is more favorable than
adaptation, which is more expensive and time consuming. Also, natural selection is an
indirect adaptation method, with comparable species that are naturally more resistant to
climatic changes and the available water salinity.
Climatic setting
Climatic characteristics of Kuwait include rainfall, temperature and wind directions.
Rainfall in Kuwait is characterized by two distinctive types; cyclonic rainfall which is
during December, January and February, and conventional rainfall which is during
October, November, March, April and May (Al-Awadi, 1999). March has the highest
rainfall (67 mm).
Temperature, on the other hand, classifies Kuwait as a two-season region; hot and dry
in summer, and short, warm and low rainfall winter. It is known that sand has low heat
conductivity, hence solar radiation that reaches the sandy soils accumulates on the
surface causing a sudden increase in temperature. This in turn increases the surrounding
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Table 1. Relation between wind speed and dust storms (Al-Awadi, 1999)
Wind speed
mile/h
24–26
26–28
28–30
30–33
Visibility
(m)
4000
2000
1000
(1000
Dust phenomena
Dust
Increasing density
Dust storm
air temperature. The highest temperatures are during August when they reach above
603C.
The low-relief topography of Kuwait and its featureless surface have a profound
influence on the wind system, which in turn affects the distribution of various
weather parameters over the area. Wind speed and direction are the key elements when
describing relative humidity and evapotranspiration. The north-western (NW) and
south-eastern (SE) wind directions are most common types influencing the climatic
setting of Kuwait. The other most common aspect of climatic rigidity in Kuwait is dust
and dust storms. Dust storms characterize summer in Kuwait due to the following
factors: wind direction and speed, soil type, solar radiation, amount of rainfall during the
rainy seasons and lack of vegetation cover. Dust storms usually occur in June and July.
Table 1 illustrates the proportional trend between wind speed and dust storms. The
seasons of Kuwait were compiled and grouped by Al-Awadi (1999) and are provided in
Table 2.
Surface topography
Kuwait lies on the northern tip of the Arabian Gulf, between latitudes 283 30 and 303
06 N, and between 463 30 and 483 30 E. Kuwait northern borders are shared with Iraq
and the Arabian Gulf and Iran border it from the east, while the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia borders Kuwait from the south and south-west. It is characterized by a flat desert
environment with a major decrease in elevation from west to east.
Kuwait hosts variable environments within its relatively small area (17,818 km)
which include (1) low elevation coastal environment that extends for 500 km including
the island coasts; (2) desert environment which is a natural continuation to the vast
desert comprised by the Arabian Peninsula; and (3) relatively flat islands all of which are
unurbanized, except for Failaka Island. Most of the desert area is flat, with a general
decrease in altitude towards the east and northeast, but hosting some isolated hills and
mountains. There exist also some depressions, which are scattered around the desert,
and will be filled by water due to surface runoff during the rainy seasons. Generally
the main geologic features of Kuwait are illustrated in Figure 1, which include the
Table 2. Seasons and their relevant months in Kuwait (Al-Awadi, 1999)
Season
Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Months
December–February
March–May
June–August
September–November
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M. AL-SAYED & A. AL-LANGAWI
Figure 1. A geologic map showing the main geologic features in Kuwait (Ebrahim, 1997).
following: (1) Ridges and hills; (2) Wadi systems; (3) Sand dunes; (4) Coastal area
and islands.
Since we are concerned with plant and water, soils are of prime interest will remain so.
Soil cover of Kuwait is illustrated in Figure 2, and characterizes our understanding of
both flora and fauna, and water pattern distribution.
Vegetation cover ( flora)
The vegetation cover comprises of perennial herbs and ephemeral plants that vary
seasonally depending on winter rainfall. The desert ecosystem of Kuwait is deteriorating
rapidly due to multiple interacting factors, such as overgrazing, uprooting of woody
shrubs, and increasing activity for recreation, gravel quarrying, and other environmental
and natural processes. The Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the Desert Storm activities
added devastating constraints and pressures on the desert ecosystem of Kuwait.
The diversity and existence of fauna depends primarily on the availability of flora.
Omar (1982) indicated that annual species are most dominating and are equal 179
species, followed by shrubs (44 species) and trees (three species). Kuwait is characterized by high temperature and low annual rainfall, which led to an increase in soil salinity.
BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION
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Therefore, most of the flora species either flourish during the rainy seasons, are durable
to salinity and are found all through the year. However, the peak of flora diversity for
most of the species in Kuwait is during January, February, and March (Clayton
& Bletcher, 1987). During these months most of annual flora species and the perennials
are found in their best flowering colors (full bloom). The diversity and types of flora are
described according to the geology, topographic and climatic variations in Kuwait.
These major environments are:
(1) Coastal sand dunes: there exists two different beach topographies along the
coastline of Kuwait. The beaches north of Kuwait City are gentle sloping
mudflats, whereas, the southern beaches are open sandy beaches and are characterized by small dunes.
(2) Coastal mud flats and salt marshes: the plants of the mudflats and salt marshes of
the northern Kuwait are less widely distributed in other regions than are the plants
Figure 2. Distribution of different soil types in Kuwait.
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Figure 3. Flora species distribution throughout the year in Kuwait.
of the dunes. This is because the condition imposes a degree of specification that
renders many of them unfit to survive elsewhere.
(3) Sand sheets: the bulk of Kuwait flora is to be found in the interior of the country.
The non-coastal Kuwait can be roughly divided into areas of sand and hard
gravelly planes, with local topographic features that create specialized habitats.
Plants of the sandy areas and gravel planes are the same. Desert areas with
moving sand dunes are only located at Umm Niqa in the north and on the floor of
Wadi Al-Baten. Open sand predominates the south of Kuwait City, along the foot
of the Jal Al-Zoor ridge in the north-east and in the beds of wadis throughout
Kuwait.
(4) Wadi gravel: located mainly in the north and west of Kuwait. Areas of accumulated sand frequently break them, with occasional drain pans or ‘playas’ of finer
silty clay deposits. In the spring and early summer, the dominant growth in these
BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION
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gravel planes is the grass Stipa capensis. It covers large areas forming a continuous
carpet of meadow-like growth. It is amongst this grass the most of the flora species
are found.
Birds of Kuwait (Fauna)
Kuwait is on a crossroads of two fairly important migration routes and these bring large
numbers of birds through the country in both spring and autumn. The two routes
through Kuwait are generally in either an east}west or north}south directions. One of
the migration routes that passes through Kuwait is from Eastern Europe along the rivers
of Turkey, Syria and Iraq eastwards to Pakistan and India. The second route is from
central and southern Russia down the western side of Zagros Mountains and central and
exceptionally southern Africa.
Figure 4. Bird distribution throughout the year in Kuwait.
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The birds of Kuwait are essentially those of the western Palaeartic Zone: a region that
extends from the mid-Atlantic ocean in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east and from
the Polar Cap in the north to the latitude of the central Sahara Desert in the south
(Clayton & Wells, 1987). They also stated that, there exists nearly 280 migratory species
that pass through Kuwait. Coastal areas are the best places to see a number of winter
visitors (Figure 4). This figure shows that winter and spring marks two distinctive
features of rain (fresh water) and favorable temperature for migrating birds. The
Wildlife Committee of Environmental Protection Council of Kuwait, 1994, indicated
that there exists over 350 birds in Kuwait, only 18 are resident birds that live and breed
locally the rest are migratory.
Socio-cultural Ecotourism
Since the establishment of Kuwait, people have utilized the natural desert as a food
resource and as a place entertainment. Planning ecotourism is best done by following the
people to find places for joy, entertainment and pleasure. The people compiled many
places throughout Kuwait, known to be winter or spring shelters. Therefore, planning
ecotourism could be achieved by beginning with the idea ‘Let the people guide you’ and
then drawing a strategic plan. Figure 5 illustrates the important points which should be
followed while planning ecotourism programs.
Ecosystem development
Land use, and the use of natural resources within national parks and other natural
habitats will mainly deplete ecosystems. Therefore, rehabilitation programs should be
made and followed to minimize the effect of human impact on environments and
regain the full or nearly full viability of the parks, which will provide the continuation of
all social activities. Rehabilitation of ecosystems could be divided into (1) Partialrehabilitation: some of the incomplete environmental resources or the resources which
do not exist, such as, water, soil, climate, plants or animals, can be either improved if
possible, or provided to the environments on the bases of environmental importation.
(2) Total-rehabilitation: done by stopping the use of national parks and any environment to maintain its rejuvenation after total or partial depletion of its natural resources
(Al-Sayed, 1999).
Hence, rehabilitation of the by areas with natural resources degraded due to natural
processes can be performed naturally or by self rehabilitation. Environments can regain
their natural power regarding natural resources of soil, water and air quality, and plant
and animal life, either at short or long time intervals.
Ecotourism as a tool
Ecotourism depends on human use of various ecological environments to attract
tourists, either locals or foreigners, and depends on the conservation and protection of
environments from misuse. From an economic point of view, ecotourism aims to
provide touristic environments, which will benefit both tourists and native people, and
governments financially, and provide protection and conservation of the environments
to prevent pollution.
Ecotourism investment and conservation
The government can set regulations to prevent use of a deteriorated environment so that
it may regain its complete power, calming the whole environment as national parks, and
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Figure 5. Ecotourism planning chart.
placing rangers to prevent any human misuse. The following points should be considered:
(1) Improvement of water resources. Environments can be affected by depletion
of its natural water resources, due to lack of rain during droughts, or by higher
level of evaporation than normal due abnormal high temperatures. This problem
can also occur due to a drop of water table level due to various reasons, such as;
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M. AL-SAYED & A. AL-LANGAWI
lack of rain at the recharge areas, and excess pumping of ground water
for irrigation and human use at various locations around the affected
environment. Governments can overcome this problem by the improvement of
the natural water resources by setting rules and regulation to farmers and others
to maintain equilibrium between the amount of water pumped and the natural
recharge. It can also suggest providing the main streams by recycled sewage water
so as to maintain and support the natural biodiversity at such environments.
(2) Improvement of the physical characteristics of the soil and replanting the species,
which were either degraded or no longer exists. Soil texture and composition can
be affected by weathering, especially after or during droughts, because of the
reduction of the supporting vegetation cover. In this case, wind action and flash
floods will transport the uncovered soil horizon producing bare land and exposing
the source rocks, this is a type of desertification phenomenon. To over come this
Figure 6. Proposed future locations for ecotourism.
BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION
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problem, tree barriers or fences should be provided at the boundaries or in the
direction of the prevailing wind action to prevent sand migration. This can also be
done by protecting the natural vegetation cover from extinction by irrigation if
possible, or replanting any of the species which were affected. In many cases,
desertification will be more severe, when sand sheets and sand dunes cover the
whole area. Degradation of soil capacity to maintain plant life can result from the
decrease in nourishment supporting minerals and organic compounds especially
within (A) and (O), the first and second organic soil horizons, and (E), the
accumulation soil horizon. To over come the above problems and to insure the
biodiversity conservation, Ecosystems are grouped based upon the following
characteristics: (1) climate; (2) flora and fauna distribution; (3) soil conditions
and survival features; (4) water resources.
Proposed future ecotourism places
Previous attempts on identifying several locations that are suitable for ecotourism have
been made by the Environmental Protection Authority and researchers from various
fields of science. The previous attempts were based on the following aspects:
(1) political basis: such as Al-Salmi and the Natural Parts in the Jal Al-Zoor area,
which draws safety and political borders of the state of Kuwait;
(2) flora and fauna distribution;
(3) To a lesser extent the availability of natural water resources.
However, in this study classification of future ecotourism places is based on the two
main concepts, which are conservation and sustainability of ecosystems. Conservation is
a process, which emphasizes the growth of the living organisms, on the other hand
sustainability stands for the climatic and water resources impacts on conservation. The
following factors were considered while identifying those sites:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
weather conditions and temperature;
water availability;
fauna and flora distribution;
peoples interest on some locations;
the accessibility of the sites;
geologic and surface features;
soil pattern and distribution.
Hence, ecotourism was planned as a seasonal phenomenon rather than as an old theme
of political matter, and was furnished along with the soil and surface features of Kuwait.
Figure 6, illustrates the locations of the future proposed ecotourism sites.
Conclusion
Temperature and water proved to be the key elements of any ecotourism process.
Tracing living organisms indicated that they should first to be adapted to the climatic
conditions of any given environment, and then to the water resources available in that
particular environment. Since people are part of the ecotourism they grow, live and
interact with almost all other component of the environment They follow in general
temperature and water conditions for selecting their favorable environment for recreation and tourism purposes. Tracing the ecotourism in this manner is cheap and easy if
planing sustainability and conservation. This recent study was based on the previous
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M. AL-SAYED & A. AL-LANGAWI
factors to protect the biodiversity by means of conservation through ecotourism activities.
The authors would like to thank Dr Mohsen Sharif from Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research
for reviewing the manuscript and providing valuable suggestions.
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