Examples of Local Organizations and Companies that Have Worked on Achieving Life on Land Goal

First Initiative: Green Riyadh Project

According to Royal Commission For Riyadh City (n.d.), It is one of the most ambitious urbanized afforestation projects in the world. It is among the four main projects in Riyadh launched by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz on March 19, 2019. This will be a landmark that helps achieve the main objective of the Saudi Vision 2030 to make Riyadh one of the 100 most livable cities in the world. Also, they will use nearly 72 original shade plant kinds compatible with Riyadh’s environment.

Royal Commission For Riyadh City (n.d.) mentions the project elements are:

To plant 7.5 million trees in all of Riyadh city as is shown below:

• 3,330 neighborhood gardens.

• 43 parks.

• 9,000 mosques.

• 6,000 schools.

• 2,000 car parking sites.

• 1,670 public facilities.

• 390 healthcare facilities.

• 64 universities and colleges.

• 16,400 km of streets and roads.

• 1,100 km green belts along with utility lines (power stations oil pipelines, etc).

• 272 km valleys.

• 175,000 square km of empty land.

According to Royal Commission For Riyadh City (n.d.), to enable this project they need enablers as follows: 

1. Establish a new irrigation water treatment network with a daily capacity of 1,000,000 m3 is being built.

2. Build a system of plant nurseries to supply the necessary seedlings and trees.

3. To enhance afforestation in both public and private projects, they will develop urban rules.

4. Promote voluntary participation through awareness initiatives.

Second initiative: Tree for Each Building

It is an initiative launched by Riyadh Municipality is to afforest internal pavements, called "tree for every building" through cooperation with the people and owners of commercial institutions. It aims to enhance the partnership between the Municipality and both citizens and residents of the capital, to help and participate in increasing the green area and beautifying the city (Riyadh Municipality Launches “Tree for Each Building” Initiative, 2017).

The engineer noted that they provide services to enrich the afforestation in Riyadh because it has great environmental and aesthetic importance (Al-Huwaimel, 2017).

Al-Huwaimel (2017) mentions that a website for this program has been prepared for registration, which is https://tashgeer.alriyadh.gov.sa, where the Municipality will provide all kinds of awareness support to contributors in the afforestation program for homes, commercial, and service institutions.

The services will include choosing the appropriate type of trees, avoiding harmful trees that can affect the fences or infrastructure of the house or street, identifying types that do not consume a lot of water, methods of planting them, and the mechanism of coordinating basins, in addition to providing free seedlings of trees to desirable population, where the participant will prepare the planting site according to specifications and according to a leaflet attached to the website (Al-Huwaimel, 2017).

References:

Royal Commission for Riyadh City. (n.d.) Green Riyadh Project. Available at: https://www.rcrc.gov.sa/en/projects/green-riyadh-project [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Riyadh Region Municipality. (2017) Riyadh Municipality Launches “Tree for Each Building” Initiative. Available at: https://www.alriyadh.gov.sa/en/news/Pages/101020171.aspx [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Riyadh Green. (2019). Greening Riyadh eng. Available at: https://youtu.be/qo0bFcQ1238 [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Green Riyadh. (2019) Available at: https://mobile.twitter.com/KSAmofaEN/status/1108019579643555842 [Accessed 8 May 2022].