The project is one of over sixty initiatives that make up the Saudi Green Initiative targets, which were revealed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year. In addition, the crown prince announced that the Kingdom would join other Arab countries in the largest reforestation effort in history as part of the Middle East Green Initiative, with the goal of planting 40 billion trees. Alanazi told Arab News that hundreds of professionals are assisting the Kingdom in reaching its aim. He was speaking during the ongoing COP27 Summit and in anticipation of an SGI event that begins on Friday.
“We have a study to set up for a master plan for the 10 billion trees that will, by the end of the study, contain all the requirements,” said Alanazi, general manager of the afforestation program at the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification. “We have a consortium of local and international companies and also (Saudi) universities such as KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) and also King Faisal University. There are a lot of international companies within this project. Also, we have cooperation with international organizations… so we’re talking about more than 100 experts working with us and 10 entities that are helping us.”
To meet SGI goals, planting 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia would help rehabilitate 40 million hectares of land, restore key ecological services, enhance air quality, and decrease sandstorms. According to official statistics, 8.4 million trees have been planted in the Kingdom.
