Environment Fund

The Environment Fund is a Saudi national fund, which aims at achieving financial sustainability and regulating the work of centers affiliated with the environment and meteorology sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After the Council of Ministers approved its establishment, the Fund was established on 26 March 2019, while the responsibility for monitoring its work rests on the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.

The Fund works to implement several tasks, such as supporting environmental protection plans, activities and initiatives, financing operational budgets for the national environment and meteorological centers, enforcing the use of environmentally friendly technologies, and improving environmental performance and rehabilitation programs. It also aims at implementing financing, incentive and investment plans and programs, enforcing the implementation of studies and research, as well as encouraging investment in areas related to the environment and meteorology sectors.

The role of the Saudi Environment Fund is similar to that in developed countries such as French, German and Dutch Environment Funds, and many others. These Funds play a vital role in supporting environmental programs, studies, and initiatives, as well as enforcing the financial sustainability of the environmental sector. In carrying out these tasks, the Fund aims at providing the necessary capabilities for its advancement, by supporting operational budgets for environmental centers.

The Environment Fund enjoys a legal personality and administrative autonomy, with an independent annual budget issued alongside the nation's general budget. Also, its employees are subject to the labor and social insurance systems.

The Fund is headquartered in the capital, Riyadh, and it has a board of directors chaired by the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture.

The Environment Fund has an executive chairman and deputies who are appointed and exempted by a decision of the Board of Directors. The board determines their wages and other financial benefits while the executive chairman is responsible for managing the Fund's affairs.

On 20 September 2020, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture launched the institutional identity of the Environment Fund, the National Center for Meteorology, the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification, the National Center for Environmental Compliance, and the National Center for Wildlife, in addition to the National Center for Waste Management. The identity of the Environment Fund reflects its personality which is all about visual communication with all stakeholders, and it also highlights the promotion of interest and the preservation of the environment.