Saudi Arabia announced a comprehensive road map on Monday to realize its commitment to plant 10 billion trees

Saudi Arabia presented a thorough road map on Monday to realise its ambition to plant 10 billion trees under the Saudi Green Initiative, a key step towards attaining its lofty environmental goals. This programme, spearheaded by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman, chairman of the Higher Committee for the Saudi Green programme, intends not only to solve environmental concerns, but also to improve residents' quality of life through long-term economic and social advantages. The announcement was made during the second annual MENA Climate Week, which will be held in Riyadh from October 8 to 12, 2023. The strategic road map presents a strategy for Saudi Arabia's habitat zones, emphasising the need of having as much potential vegetative cover as possible.

The plan also takes into account metropolitan areas, motorways, and greenbelts to ensure that trees are carefully planted, providing critical ecosystem services to citizens, particularly those in urban areas. City centres are projected to have better air quality and temperatures decreased by at least 2.2°C, addressing common environmental dangers such as severe heat and ambient air pollution. The effort forecasts a reduction in CO2 levels as a result of greater urban tree planting and green areas.

As the initiative is implemented, it is expected to generate jobs across the country in areas such as tree growing, seed collection, landscape preparation and maintenance, development of urban water reuse networks, creation of parks and protected areas, and pioneering sustainability innovations. Saudi Arabia's tree planting goal is widely regarded as one of the most ambitious in the world, given the Kingdom's severe natural characteristics, which include below-average rainfall, arable land mass, and forest area. The objective of restoring 74.8 million hectares of land has been changed from 40 million hectares to 74.8 million hectares.

Planting 10 billion trees contributes to 1% of the world greening aim and 20% of the Middle East Green Initiative's afforestation target of 50 billion trees. The road map release comes on the heels of the successful planting of 41 million trees in Saudi Arabia between 2017 and 2023. The road plan is the result of a two-year feasibility study done in partnership with recognised worldwide and local experts by the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture (MEWA) and the National Centre for Vegetation Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC).

The research sought not just to achieve the 10 billion objective, but also to include sustainable watering techniques and guarantee that the chosen trees and shrubs are well-suited to the Kingdom's natural kinds and environmental circumstances.

The initial phase of implementation (2024-2030) focuses on the environmental sector, using a nature-based approach. The second phase, beginning in 2030, includes a complete strategy with increasing human intervention. Saudi Arabia wants to plant over 600 million trees by 2030, rehabilitating 3.8 million hectares of land, with over 2,000 varieties of flora spread throughout several ecological zones. The project emphasises the significance of restoring and maintaining the Kingdom's diverse biodiversity in order to meet the 10 billion tree objective.