Going Green: Saudi Arabia to plant 250,000 drought-resistant trees

Al Ghadha park is the world’s largest saxaul botanical garden

Abdullah Abduljabar, Vice President of Al Ghadha Parks in Qassim, central Saudi Arabia, where a huge saxaul tree planting programme is being planned. All photos by Reuters

Al Ghadha Parks is the world's largest saxaul botanical garden. For centuries millions of the trees, known by their Arabic name al ghadha, provided firewood, animal feed and respite from the desert heat for the Bedouin forefathers of modern Saudis.

The trees produce seeds only as they become drier. Current conditions have provided the seeds to plant 250,000 drought-resistant saxauls in the region.

Saxaul roots bind the desert sands, helping to constrain sandstorms.

The kingdom aims to plant 10 billion trees in the coming decades as part of an ambitious campaign unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year.

It is part of a green initiative aimed at reducing carbon emissions, pollution and land degradation.

Abdullah Abduljabar checks soil quality in the saxaul garden.

Majed Alsolaim, chief executive of Al Ghadha Parks, shows the Guinness World Record certificate for largest saxaul botanical garden held by the park.

Saudi Arabia's ambitious plan to tackle climate change and desertification could soon take a big leap forward thanks to a hardy desert tree.

Saudi Arabia’s Al Ghadha park holds the Guinness world record for being the biggest botanical garden for saxaul trees — trees that produce seeds only as they become drier.

Abdullah Abduljabar, vice president of Saudi Arabia's Al Ghadha environmental association, says that in a water-scarce region, the conditions are ripe to plant 250,000 more saxaul trees this year.

The saxaul, or Al Ghadha, tree provided firewood, fed animals and sheltered many a Bedouin for centuries in Saudi Arabia’s Unaizah, an ancient waypoint for pilgrims on their way to Makkah in the region of Qassim.

Al Ghadha tree has additional benefits — its roots help bind soil and contain sandstorms.

“The saxaul is a legacy of the people of Unaizah … one of its benefits is that it holds down the sands,” Mr Abduljabar told Reuters.

Bigger than the size of US capital Washington, at 172 square kilometres, Al Ghadha park became a world record holder in December last year.

Saxaul trees typically grow one to four metres high and are indigenous to the deserts of Saudi Arabia, especially in places where the sand is thicker.

The wood from these trees can be used to make furniture and glue, and the tree itself has medicinal uses, Al Ghadha environmental association says.

Aside from its plans to plant 10 billion trees as part of its Green Initiative, Saudi Arabia has also launched a mobile application dedicated specifically for the preservation of Al Ghadha tree.

Through the app, citizens can register their clean-up and tree-planting activities and get rewarded for doing so through competitions that can offer as much as 2,000 Saudi Riyals ($532) to the winner.