During the two-day meeting, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) Chief Commissioner Nader Dahabi briefed members of the coordination committee entrusted with the preservation of the endangered animal on Jordan’s experience, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) established the country’s first nature reserve of Shaumari in 1975, mainly to reintroduce species that had been extinct, including the Arabian Oryx, one of the most endangered animals in the world. 

This magnificent desert animal was saved from the edge of extinction by international rescue efforts. Shaumari was the first reserve to have this animal live on Arabian soil again, according to the RSCN.

Eight animals were flown over in 1978 from the World Breeding Herd in Phoenix Zoo, Arizona, and by 1999 —  20 years later —  the herd grew to over 200 animals, some of which have already been released in the wilderness of Wadi Rum.

The reintroduction of the species was carried out in stages to help the animal adapt to the new environment, Dahabi said.

During the first stage, the technical committee in charge of the project faced several difficulties because of technical and financial problems, Dahabi added.

Therefore, it was decided to broaden the breeding  area, providing the animals with a larger vegetation cover, the ASEZA chief commissioner said.

President of the Coordination Committee Majed Mansouri, who is also secretary general of the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency, told the meeting that a comprehensive strategy is being drawn up to coordinate all efforts to preserve this animal.

There are 8,000 head of Oryx in the region, distributed among the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman, Mansouri said, highlighting efforts to reintroduce it in other Arab countries. 

Several countries in the region have programmes to protect the Arabian Oryx and reintroduce them into the wild. 

There are captive populations in Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Wild populations of Oryx are found in the Uruq Bani Maarid protected area of Saudi Arabia, established in 1995 with captive-bred animals from elsewhere in the country, as well as at Jiddat Al Harasis in Oman where the animals were reintroduced in the early 1980s.

Director of the Wadi Rum Reserve Khalil Al Abdullat said an integral programme had been prepared to reintroduce the first herd of this rare animal through a memorandum of understanding reached with the Abu Dhabi environment agency —  first in the reserve, then to be set free at a later stage to become part of the country’s natural habitat. 

The Arabian Oryx is also expected to provide a boost to tourism in Wadi Rum, which it used to inhabit at one time, as rock drawings of the animal can be found throughout the area.

Arabian Oryx began to decline due to overhunting in the mid-19th century and by 1914, few survived outside Saudi Arabia. 

Modern firearms and four-wheel-drive vehicles accelerated the decline of the species, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

By the 1960s, Oryx only survived in the wild on the border where Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman meet, and in the Wahiba area of northeast Oman.

The last Arabian Oryx to survive in the wild were located in the Jiddat Al Harasis in Oman in 1972.