ResourcesOverview
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest coral reef nation in the region, with an extensive coastline
facing the Red Sea, and an additional significant coastline along the western shores of the Arabian Gulf. The Red Sea coastline extends from the border with Jordan in the northern Gulf of Aqaba all the way to the border with Yemen in the southern Red Sea, following the clear climatic and physical gradients described elsewhere. This region is arid and dominated by high relief along much of its length. Offshore the waters mirror the patterns of the western shores of the Red Sea. In the north there is little or no continental shelf, reef flats are narrow, and the reef profiles are often steep to vertiginous. Further south the continental shelf widens, and in the far south becomes very wide, with extensive, shallow, and turbid inshore waters.
Large parts of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastline are undeveloped, particularly away from the central towns of Jeddah and Yanbu. Sewage pollution and land reclamation are concerns around many of the larger towns, including Al Wadj, Yanbu, Jeddah and Jizan. Close to these there are an estimated 18 desalination plants along the Red Sea coast, creating localized problems through the return of warm, highly saline waters together with chemicals such as chlorine and anti-scaling compounds. Oil pollution is a threat to reefs around some of the major ports and the refinery in Yanbu. Jeddah is the largest of the Red Sea ports and has undergone massive expansion in recent decades, including large amounts of reclamation and building work directly on the fringing reef flats. Intensive industrial and urban development now extends over more than 100 kilometers of this coast, and many of the nearshore reefs (together with associated seagrass and mangrove areas) have been severely degraded or destroyed, with pollution and sedimentation combining with the direct impacts of reclamation. Away from these urban areas coastal development remains limited and the reefs are in relatively good condition.
Fishing is not a major industry in the country. There is significant fishing for food and recreation on the nearshore reefs close to the towns, threatening local populations of target species such as large groupers, but there is little or no artisanal fishing. Some commercial fishing activities operate out of Jeddah and Jizan, mostly in the shallow bank areas to south of the country, where there is trawling for prawns and some fishing for pelagic species. There are no detailed statistics describing the size of this fishery.
Tourism is largely unknown, and there is no active promotion of diving or snorkelling, although a number of dive centers cater for local needs, which include significant numbers of expatriate workers. Such recreational activities are most significant on the reefs around Jeddah. A large number of marine protected areas have been proposed along this coastline, though few have been declared.
Extensive sections of the Persian Gulf coastline are developed and there are large numbers of offshore oil platforms. Impacts on the reefs include those arising from oil pollution, solid waste, and industrial and sewage effluents. There have also been more direct impacts from land reclamation. A large area of reefs have legal protection in one of the only marine protected areas in the Arabian Gulf, although it is unclear to what degree this site is actively managed. Some of the Gulf’s more general biological and physical features, together with major human impacts, are discussed more fully in the final section of this chapter.
Geography
Area: 1,960,582 million sq. km. (1,176,349 mi.), about one-fourth the size of the continental United States.
Cities (2001 est.): Capital--Riyadh (pop. 4.3 million). Other cities--Jeddah (2.25 million), Makkah, (1.2 million), Dammam/Khobar/Dhahran, (1.6 million).
Terrain: Primarily desert with rugged mountains in the southwest.
Climate: Arid, with great extremes of temperature in the interior; humidity and temperature are both high along the coast.
People
Nationality: Noun--Saudi(s). Adjective--Saudi Arabian or Saudi. Population (2001 est.): 22.7 million (16.3 million Saudis, 6.4 million foreign nationals).
Annual growth rate: 3.0%.
Ethnic groups: Arab (90% of native pop.), Afro-Asian (10% of native pop.).
Religion: Islam.
Language: Arabic (official).
Education: Literacy--male 87.9%, female 74.2%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--19/1,000. Life expectancy--male 66 years, female 70 years.
Work force: 7.8 million (about 59% foreign workers); industry--10%; services (including government)--78%; agriculture--11%.
Economy
GDP (2001 est.): $170.5 billion.
Annual growth rate (2001 est.): 1%.
Per capita GDP (2001 est.): $7,564.
Natural resources: Hydrocarbons, gold, uranium, bauxite, coal, iron, phosphate, tungsten, zinc, silver, copper.
Agriculture : Products--dates, grains, livestock, vegetables. Cultivated land--1%.
Industry: Types--petroleum, petrochemicals, cement, fertilizer, light industry.
Trade (2000 est.): Exports--$79.0 billion: petroleum and petroleum products. Imports--$27.8 billion: manufactured goods, transportation equipment, clothing and textiles, processed food products. Major trading partners--U.S., Japan, western Europe.
Profile
Saudi Arabia's 2001 population is estimated to be about 22.7 million, including about 6.4 million resident foreigners. Until the 1960s, most of the population was nomadic or seminomadic; due to rapid economic and urban growth, more than 95% of the population now is settled. Some cities and oases have densities of more than 1,000 people per square kilometer (2,600 per sq. mi).
Saudi Arabia is known as the birthplace of Islam, which in the century following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. spread west to Spain and east to India. Islam obliges all Muslims to make the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah, at least once during their lifetime if they are able to do so. The cultural environment in Saudi Arabia is highly conservative; the country adheres to a strict interpretation of Islamic religious law (Shari'a). Cultural presentations must conform to narrowly defined standards of ethics. Men and women are not permitted to attend public events together and are segregated in the work place.
Most Saudis are ethnically Arab. Some are of mixed ethnic origin and are descended from Turks, Iranians, Indonesians, Indians, Africans, and others, most of whom immigrated as pilgrims and reside in the Hijaz region along the Red Sea coast. Many Arabs from nearby countries are employed in the kingdom. There also are significant numbers of Asian expatriates mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. There are less than 100,000 Westerners in Saudi Arabia.
History
Except for a few major cities and oases, the harsh climate historically prevented much settlement of the Arabian Peninsula. People of various cultures have lived in the peninsula over a span of more than 5,000 years. The Dilmun culture, along the Gulf coast, was contemporaneous with the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians, and most of the empires of the ancient world traded with the states of the peninsula.
The Saudi state began in central Arabia in about 1750. A local ruler, Muhammad bin Saud, joined forces with an Islamic reformer, Muhammad Abd Al-Wahhab, to create a new political entity. Over the next 150 years, the fortunes of the Saud family rose and fell several times as Saudi rulers contended with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and other Arabian families for control on the peninsula. The modern Saudi state was founded by the late King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud (known internationally as Ibn Saud). In 1902, Abdul Aziz recaptured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hijaz between 1913 and 1926. In 1932, these regions were unified as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Boundaries with Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties negotiated in the 1920s, with two "neutral zones"--one with Iraq and the other with Kuwait--created. The Saudi-Kuwaiti neutral zone was administratively partitioned in 1971, with each state continuing to share the petroleum resources of the former zone equally. Tentative agreement on the partition of the Saudi-Iraqi neutral zone was reached in 1981, and partition was finalized by 1983. The country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Taif, which ended a brief border war between the two states. A June 2000 treaty further delineated portions of the boundary with Yemen. The location and status of Saudi Arabia's boundary with the United Arab Emirates is not final; a defacto boundary reflects a 1974 agreement. The border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar was resolved in March 2001. The border with Oman also is not demarcated.
King Abdul Aziz died in 1953 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Saud, who reigned for 11 years. In 1964, Saud abdicated in favor of his half-brother, Faisal, who had served as Foreign Minister. Because of fiscal difficulties, King Saud had been persuaded in 1958 to delegate direct conduct of Saudi Government affairs to Faisal as Prime Minister; Saud briefly regained control of the government in 1960-62. In October 1962, Faisal outlined a broad reform program, stressing economic development. Proclaimed King in 1964 by senior royal family members and religious leaders, Faisal also continued to serve as Prime Minister. This practice has been followed by subsequent kings.
The mid-1960s saw external pressures generated by Saudi-Egyptian differences over Yemen. When civil war broke out in 1962 between Yemeni royalists and republicans, Egyptian forces entered Yemen to support the new republican government, while Saudi Arabia backed the royalists. Tensions subsided only after 1967, when Egypt withdrew its troops from Yemen.
Saudi forces did not participate in the Six-Day (Arab-Israeli) War of June 1967, but the government later provided annual subsidies to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to support their economies. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Saudi Arabia participated in the Arab oil boycott of the United States and Netherlands. A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Saudi Arabia had joined other member countries in moderate oil price increases beginning in 1971. After the 1973 war, the price of oil rose substantially, dramatically increasing Saudi Arabia's wealth and political influence.
In 1975, King Faisal was assassinated by a nephew, who was executed after an extensive investigation concluded that he acted alone. Faisal was succeeded by his half-brother Khalid as King and Prime Minister; their half-brother Prince Fahd was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Khalid empowered Crown Prince Fahd to oversee many aspects of the government's international and domestic affairs. Economic development continued rapidly under King Khalid, and the kingdom assumed a more influential role in regional politics and international economic and financial matters.
In June 1982, King Khalid died, and Fahd became King and Prime Minister in a smooth transition. Another half-brother, Prince Abdullah, Commander of the Saudi National Guard, was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Fahd's brother, Prince Sultan, the Minister of Defense and Aviation, became Second Deputy Prime Minister. Under King Fahd, the Saudi economy adjusted to sharply lower oil revenues resulting from declining global oil prices. Saudi Arabia supported neutral shipping in the Gulf during periods of the Iran-Iraq war and aided Iraq's war-strained economy. King Fahd played a major part in bringing about the August 1988 cease-fire between Iraq and Iran and in organizing and strengthening the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a group of six Arabian Gulf states dedicated to fostering regional economic cooperation and peaceful development.
In 1990-91, King Fahd played a key role before and during the Gulf war. King Fahd's action also consolidated the coalition of forces against Iraq and helped define the tone of the operation as a multilateral effort to reestablish the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kuwait. Acting as a rallying point and personal spokesman for the coalition, King Fahd helped bring together his nation's GCC allies, Western allies, and Arab allies, as well as nonaligned nations from Africa and the emerging democracies of eastern Europe. He used his influence as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to persuade other Arab and Islamic nations to join the coalition.
King Fahd suffered a stroke in November 1995. Since 1997, Crown Prince Abdullah has taken on much of the day-to-day responsibilities of running the government.
Information provided by CIA Worldfactbook, US Department of State, Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN). ReefBase: Oliver, J. and M. Noordeloos. Editors. 2002, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center,
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