RIYADH, 2 November 2006 — The Kingdom has banned hunting of birds for the next 12 months. The ban was announced yesterday, following a directive issued by Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, as a preventative measure against the spread of the H5N1 virus in the Kingdom.

Prince Sultan is chairman of the board of directors of the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) which announced the ban.

Khaled Al-Humaidan, director of public relations and media at the NCWCD, reiterated that the Kingdom was free from avian flu. He noted that a woman had died of the disease in Egypt three days ago, which indicated that the region was not free from this problem.

Avian flu killed Hannan Aboul Magd, a 39-year-old woman in Egypt, pushing the number of fatalities worldwide this year to 74. The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 256 people in 10 countries in the past three years, killing 152 of them, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said yesterday. Last year, 42 fatalities were confirmed.

Diseased birds increase the opportunities for human infection and provide chances for H5N1 to change into a form more dangerous to people. The virus is reported to have killed a person about every four days this year, more than double the 2005 rate. Millions could die if H5N1 becomes easily transmissible between people, the WHO official said in a statement.

The Kingdom is home to several thousands of migratory birds that come here during the winter and fly back to their respective home countries for their spring in late December.

“There are chances that these birds could bring in the disease to places where they temporary take shelter,” Al-Humaidan said, pointing out that the ban would curb the spread of this disease, if any, within the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the NCWCD, regulates the hunting season in the Kingdom. “The year is divided into eight hunting seasons, six of them devoted to birds and two for dhub and rabbits. Although hunting of birds is disallowed, the commission will allow hunting of dhub and rabbits depending on the situation as the respective seasons approach.”

Al-Humaidan said falcons and houbara bustards were the birds most hunted in the Kingdom. Falcons are found mostly in areas such as Al-Jouf, Tabuk, Ghuraiyath and along the Red Sea coast. Different species of falcons include Saker, Green and Lanner falcons and prices range from SR10,000 to SR100,000. The hunted falcons are either sold in the open market or they are tamed to help the hunters in tracking animals.

The hunters are also not allowed to hunt in the 16 protected areas in the Kingdom, Empty Quarter and in places close to urban settlements. In view of the Kingdom’s conservation plans, hunters are warned not to kill the endangered species such as oryx, gazelles, Arabian leopard and ostrich.

The commission organized a series of public awareness programs Kingdomwide among students, teachers, men and women in various provinces. A team of wildlife experts regularly meets the members of the public who live in and around the protected areas to teach them the values of conservation of wildlife which would eventually benefit man and environment.