Saudi Arabia nears 100m tree objective
Ambitious initiative eyes 10b trees amid pro-environment efforts
Cairo: Saudi Arabia is close to making a milestone environmental achievement of planting 100 million trees nationwide, according to an environment official.
Chief Executive of the National Centre for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification, Khaled Al Abdulkader, said the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI), launched in 2021, aims to plant 10 billion trees and cover 40 million hectares of land.
He made the remarks at a ceremony marking the launch of a national afforestation season.
He pointed out that the large-scale afforestation initiatives implemented by the Centre, with government support, will immensely benefit the environment and society by contributing to achieving sustainable development and enhancing the quality of life for all people in the kingdom.
Meanwhile, Undersecretary of the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Osama Faqiha, said the SGI has succeeded in planting more than 95 million trees since its launch, and aims to exceed the 100-115 million trees this season.
In 2021, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the SGI, a plan pursuing three overarching targets, namely emission reduction, afforestation and land regeneration, as well as land and sea protection.
Envisaged as whole-of-society action, the SGI strives to unite all of the kingdom’s work to combat climate change under one umbrella with clear-cut objectives including accelerating green transition.
The initiative envisages reducing carbon emissions by more than 4% of global contributions, through renewable energy projects to provide 50% of electricity production in the kingdom by the year 2030, and projects in the field of clean hydrocarbon technologies.
More than 95 million trees have already been planted across Saudi Arabia.
The tree expansion was the result of efforts made by a national afforestation programme in conjunction with governmental, private sector and non-profit agencies.
Over the past three years, more than 111,000 hectares of degraded land have also been rehabilitated along with the protection of 4.3 million hectares of land, the National Centre for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification said last month.