Saudi Arabia plans to plant 10 billion trees, rehabilitating 74.8 million hectares across deserts under the Saudi Green Initiative nationwide. Image: earth.com

In a country where nearly 95 per cent of the land is desert, sand is not just terrain; it is culture.

Bedouin life, camel routes, oases and long crossings have shaped Saudi Arabia’s identity so deeply that it is difficult to separate the Kingdom from the desert itself. However, history presents a distinct perspective.

Long before oil, borders, and dunes dominated the map, large parts of what is now Saudi Arabia belonged to what scientists call “Green Arabia.”

a period when rainfall was higher, vegetation spread across the peninsula, and the land could support sustained life.

That lost landscape is no longer just a footnote in climate history; it is the reference point behind Saudi Arabia’s attempt to make the desert work differently this time.

That contrast between past and present helps explain why Saudi Arabia’s environmental push is not about aesthetics or symbolism.

The kingdom learnt long ago how to endure extreme conditions, and oil later transformed that endurance into economic power.

But oil did not change the land itself, and it will not define the future forever.

Long-term stability in a country where desert still dominates the map hinges on whether vegetation can enhance the landscape’s resilience.

water management and land restoration rather than reliance on a non-renewable source of energy alone.

Saudi Arabia’s Green Initiative aims to plant 10 billion trees, restore 74.8 million hectares,

combat desertification, improve ecosystems, and support long-term environmental resilience. Image: Red Sea Corporate

That is the logic behind the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI), launched in 2021 under the patronage of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

At its core is one of the most ambitious environmental pledges ever made: to plant 10 billion trees across Saudi Arabia.

rehabilitating nearly 74.8 million hectares of land and reversing decades of desertification.

A landscape defined by sand

Saudi Arabia contains the Rub’ al Khali, the largest continuous sand desert on Earth.

Covering roughly 650,000 square kilometers—more than twice as much as the UK—it forms the heart of the wider Arabian Desert, stretching into neighbouring Gulf states.

Sand dunes, gravel plains and rocky escarpments dominate much of the kingdom’s geography. These natural conditions make large-scale greening uniquely difficult.

Rainfall, arable land and current forest cover are all well below global averages. Yet this context is precisely what makes Saudi Arabia’s afforestation targets stand out.

Planting 10 billion trees would represent about one per cent of the global greening goal and fully 20 per cent of the Middle East Green Initiative’s wider target of 50 billion trees across the region.

Growing 10 billion trees across Saudi Arabia is equivalent to rehabilitating over 74 million hectares of land.

By July 2025, the Kingdom had planted well over 151 million trees and rehabilitated around 500,000 hectares of land.

according to Environment, Water and Agriculture Minister Abdulrahman Al-Fadley,

There will be steady progress toward the target of more than 600 million trees by 2030 and 10 billion over the longer term. Importantly,

This momentum did not begin with the formal launch of the Saudi Green Initiative in 2021:

Between 2017 and 2023 alone, some 41 million trees were planted, showing that greening efforts had already been underway well before SGI was officially announced.

Science before scale: How the plan was built

Planting trees at this scale in one of the world’s most arid environments is easier to announce than to execute.

Much of Saudi Arabia has been desert for centuries, with limited rainfall, fragile soils and extreme heat. Making trees survive, not just grow, requires careful scientific calibration:

choosing the right species, matching them to precise locations, and ensuring long-term water support rather than short-term visual greening.

That is why, before the target was formally announced, a two-year feasibility study led by the Ministry of Environment,

Water and Agriculture (MEWA) and the National Center for Vegetation Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC),

In collaboration with global and local experts, they mapped where vegetation could realistically thrive. More than 1,150 field surveys were conducted across the Kingdom.

using geospatial analysis that factored in soil composition, water availability, temperature ranges, wind patterns and elevation.

Native species were prioritised to restore ecological balance rather than introduce water-intensive or inappropriate plants.

Ahmad al-Anazi (left) of the National Center for Vegetation Cover and park director Suleiman al-Saoub inspect trees and shrubs at the Al Ghat National Park in Al Ghat in central Saudi Arabia on Feb. 8, 2023. / image:

The Christian Science Monitor

The resulting roadmap, unveiled in October 2023 at MENA Climate Week in Riyadh, divides implementation into two phases.

Between 2024 and 2030, the focus is on nature-based restoration across habitat zones, from cities and highways to rangelands, valleys and protected areas.

supported by sustainable irrigation, urban water reuse, and rainwater harvesting. From 2030 on, a second phase will introduce more comprehensive, managed interventions.

The approach builds on the Kingdom’s existing biodiversity, which spans more than 2,000 plant species across mangroves, inland marshes,

mountain forests and national parks, and aims to deliver measurable benefits, including lower urban temperatures by at least 2.2°C, improved air quality and reduced heat-related health risks.

The phrase “From cities to carbon” illustrates the broader goals of the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI).

Tree planting sits at the heart of the Saudi Green Initiative, but it is not the whole story.

SGI is designed as a systems-level reset, tying land restoration to emissions, water, energy and public health in the wider context of Vision 2030.

The initiative is built around three clear pillars: cutting emissions, expanding vegetation, and protecting land and sea.

Saudi Arabia has set itself a series of concrete targets by the end of this decade. By 2030,

Saudi Arabia expects to plant more than 600 million trees, restoring roughly 3.8 million hectares of degraded land.

At the same time, the Kingdom plans to place more than 30 per cent of its land and marine territory under protection while reducing carbon emissions by 278 million tonnes each year.

Half of Saudi Arabia’s electricity is targeted to come from renewable sources by 2030.

Beyond that milestone lies a longer horizon. By 2060,

The Kingdom aims to reach net-zero emissions through a circular carbon economy approach, which balances emissions reduction with reuse, recycling and removal rather than relying on offsets alone.

The idea is not abrupt decarbonisation but a managed transition that reshapes how energy, land, and water systems interact in a country that will remain energy-producing for decades.

That ambition is already reshaping environmental infrastructure. Protected terrestrial areas have expanded sharply, from just 4.5 per cent of Saudi territory to 18.1 per cent today.

while the number of national parks has grown from 18 to 500. Marine protection has followed a similar trajectory.

with more than 8,000 endangered species reintroduced into coastal and offshore habitats as protected zones expanded by 260 per cent.

Monitoring capacity has grown alongside protection. Saudi Arabia now operates 240 air-quality monitoring stations nationwide.

backed by advanced meteorological sensing and marine spill-response systems. These additions are not merely symbolic;

They serve as the foundation for tracking, correcting, and scaling greening efforts. Water, inevitably, remains the hardest constraint.

Saudi Arabia is now the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, with daily capacity reaching 16.6 million cubic metres by late 2024.

nearly double 2016 levels. Reused water accounts for 32 per cent of total consumption, and strategic water storage capacity has increased by 600 per cent, extending average urban supply coverage from one day to three.

To supplement supply, the Kingdom has also turned to atmospheric and natural capture. Officials report that 711 cloud-seeding flights have been conducted across regions.

adding an estimated 6.4 million cubic metres of rainfall to support vegetation and groundwater. At the same time, 1,000 rainwater-harvesting dams are under construction.

with a combined annual capacity of 4 million cubic metres.

These efforts led the UN Water Committee to select Saudi Arabia as a global model for water sustainability, a notable endorsement for one of the driest countries on Earth.

Greening as economic and social policy

The Saudi Green Initiative is not framed solely as an environmental programme.

It is also a labour strategy, an urban policy and a quality-of-life intervention.

Over the coming decades, greening efforts are expected to generate jobs across seed collection,

nursery management, land preparation, irrigation systems, park development, water reuse networks; and environmental technologies.

That intent is most visible in cities, where trees are expected to deliver immediate, lived benefits. Increased canopy cover in urban centres is projected to reduce temperatures by at least 2.2°C.

improve air quality, and lower the risk of heat-related illnesses, particularly respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Riyadh has become the testing ground. Through Green Riyadh, the capital aims to increase green space coverage to nine per cent and plant 7.5 million trees by 2030.

alongside wider greening projects, spanning more than 437 square kilometres.

At the heart of this transformation is King Salman Park, the world’s largest urban park.

where more than a million trees will eventually cover 11 square kilometres of its planned 16.6-square-kilometre footprint.

Image: Green Riyadh

Greening has also been extended deliberately to religious and cultural spaces. In Makkah,

The Green Qibla initiative targets the planting of 15 million trees by 2036.

reshaping the urban environment of one of the most visited cities on the planet while improving thermal comfort for pilgrims.

Altogether, 77 initiatives have been activated under the SGI umbrella, representing investments exceeding $186 billion.

The scale is intentional. Saudi Arabia is not trying to erase its desert identity or romanticise its distant past. It is an attempt at something more pragmatic:

to stabilise an extreme environment, reduce risks, and make daily life more resilient in a future where oil alone can no longer define national security.

The desert will not disappear.

The Kingdom is attempting to make one of the world’s driest landscapes sustainably liveable through science-led restoration.

large-scale water management, and long-term planning, ensuring it is not just greener on paper but also measurably healthier on the ground.

The row between Europe and Washington about what you can do online just ramped up.

On Christmas Eve, the White House imposed visa bans on five public figures in Europe.

It’s all about what European officials describe as the regulation of online harm and what America’s authorities consider censorship.

“If you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil,” said Sarah Rogers, the US under secretary of state for public diplomacy, as the bans were announced.

The highest-profile figure facing travel restrictions is Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for regulating social media and a key architect of the Digital Services Act (DSA)—a piece of legislation that is very unpopular in the White House.

The Trump administration has accused the EU of placing “undue” restrictions on freedom of expression in its efforts to combat hate speech, misinformation and disinformation.

The administration contends that the DSA unjustly singles out US companies and cities, which it lacks the authority to represent.

Mr Breton has already had some fiery spats with Elon Musk, the owner of X and former Trump adviser.

Musk referred to him as a “tyrant of Europe” earlier this year, and Mr Breton accused Musk of deceiving him about the online restrictions he was subject to.

“Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?” he posted on X after the bans were announced.

The other four people facing visa bans are from the UK and Germany, and they work in disinformation organisations.

They are the UK’s Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index and Germany’s Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg from HateAid.

Although this is the first time Washington has put visa bans in place, it is an argument that’s been brewing for years.

Europe and the UK have much stricter controls over what you can do online compared to America.

In Europe, there is the Digital Services Act, which regulates online activity. In the UK, we now have the Online Safety Act that began being fully enforced in July.

We also have a number of other laws that govern what you can say and can lead to jail time if you breach them.

Joey Barton avoids jail over X posts

Just this month, ex-footballer Joey Barton was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for “grossly offensive” posts he sent on X.

Under both of those acts, platforms hosting harmful content can be fined significant amounts, even if they’re based in the US.

Musk’s platform X, for example, was recently fined €120m (£104m) by the EU over issues relating to transparency.

Fines like that are what annoy the Trump administration so much. It sees rules like the Digital Services Act as governments in Europe undermining Americans’ right to freedom of speech.

Ironically, that’s exactly what European leaders are now accusing Washington of – overreach.

The EU Commission has strongly condemned the visa bans and the UK government said it “supports the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content”.

The politician who replaced Breton in his EU commissioner role, Stephane Sejourne, said, “No sanction will silence the sovereignty of the European peoples. Total solidarity with him and all the people of Europe affected by this.”

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