Business must partner with communities to save the environment
Effective stewardship of a natural habitat hinges on the involvement of the people who live and work there. Communities understand local environmental issues from firsthand experience. Red Sea Global, the company I work for, is creating luxury resorts on the western coast of Saudi Arabia, helping to put the Kingdom on the global tourism map.
Upon completion, our flagship destinations — the Red Sea and AMAALA — will be powered exclusively by renewable energy, with some 760,000 solar panels already in place.
We aim to achieve a 30 percent net conservation benefit at our locations by 2040. We are gardening corals to help replenish reefs and we have planted more than 1 million mangrove tree seedlings, one of nature’s best carbon sinks, out of a planned 50 million by 2030. To nurture our environment, we must involve the farmers, fishermen and townspeople who are our neighbors.
By helping them find their voice and express their wants and concerns, we can forge the partnerships that are vital for protecting and enhancing our environment, while we also try to improve people’s lives.
Our collaborations range from the grassroots to the private sector, government agencies, such as Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Environmental Compliance, and a broad spectrum of civil society organizations. Empowering local communities means raising awareness, building capacity, and linking them with essential knowledge and resources. A good example of this is Tamala, the farmers’ co-operative that
Red Sea Global co-founded.
In 2021, we approached some of the farmers in our areas to source fresh vegetables and fruits for our future hotels. These farmers told us about the many challenges they faced, from overpriced fertilizers and a lack of technical expertise, to limited transportation that made it hard for them to sell their produce.
So we stepped in, helping to establish
Tamala in 2022. Today, local farms are delivering high-quality produce directly to The Red Sea destination. Traveling from farm to table, this produce leaves a much smaller carbon footprint than would be the case if we had to truck it north from our supply hub in Jeddah. Our partnership with local farmers through Tamala is a success because we listened to local communities.
Another example of local empowerment is Red Sea Global’s project to restore traditional sailboats in the town of Umluj. Our aim was to help the community revive and preserve its rich maritime heritage.
Yet another initiative for community empowerment is a mobile phone app that we designed for people living near The Red Sea destination. It is an open, two-way communication channel that lets communities share feedback, suggestions and complaints directly with us. The app is called Jewar, which translates roughly as “Good Neighbor.” Even though Jewar is still in its beta phase, almost 17,000 people have already downloaded it. These diverse examples show that the only limit to community engagement is imagination.
Yet, to achieve truly outstanding success, it is essential that we empower local communities, enabling them to become partners in regenerating our natural habitats.