Article 31 of the Saudi Environment Law

This Article deals with who sets the rules for entering protected areas and benefiting from them. Under Article 1, protected areas are land, marine or coastal sites that the competent authority designates and that are dedicated to protecting and developing wildlife.

The Article gives this power to the competent authority, which under the definitions is the Ministry or any of the National Centers for the environment sector or the Red Sea Coral Reef and Turtle Conservation Authority, each within its jurisdiction. It must set these controls in coordination with the Ministry of Interior.

The controls cover two matters:

• Entering protected areas.
• Using them, including the forms mentioned in the text: grazing, ecotourism, conducting research, and the like.

There is not a single set of controls for all protected areas; the text ties them to the nature of each protected area and to achieving the objectives of the Law. The Article does not specify the details of these controls; they are left to what the competent authority sets.

The Article is linked to those before and after it: Article 30 prohibits any activity within protected area boundaries without a permit or license under the regulations, and Article 32 lists prohibited acts there, including grazing or farming outside the sites and periods the competent authority specifies and driving vehicles outside designated tracks. So anyone who wants to visit a protected area, graze or conduct research in it should first check the controls of that particular area and whether a permit or license is needed.