As part of its commitment to developing a comprehensive sustainable landscape strategy to embrace the pristine environmental components and enhance biodiversity in the Red Sea region, the Red Sea Development Company - a subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) - is seeking to rely on local and regional plants while including endemic and adaptive plant species.
The company cooperates with the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture to set new standards in sustainable development that are compatible with global biosecurity regulations, policies and procedures with regard to importing the required types of adapted plants and agricultural products into the Kingdom.
In this regard, the ministry, in coordination with the Red Sea Nursery, provided seeds and seedlings of many local plant species, in addition to developing mechanisms for transporting and planting large trees and palms from their local and regional sources to the destination.
John Pagano, CEO of the Red Sea Development Company and AMAALA, said the nursery, which extends over an area of 100 hectares, was currently producing one million plants.
“We are seeking to increase that rate by another million plants by the end of this year,” he added.
Fahd Al-Hubaili, Assistant Director of Environmental Programs at the Red Sea Development Company, noted that the establishment of the Red Sea Nursery came in line with the highest international standards to provide all projects with multiple options of plant species needed to enhance the landscape and the planned environmental improvement programs.
He underlined the company’s keenness to comply with the sustainability goals, which include protecting the natural components inherent in the region and enhancing them by applying the highest standards of sustainability and biosecurity.
The nursery covers an area of more than one million square meters, making it one of the largest nurseries in the Middle East and one of the most important destination facilities for implementing the sustainability strategy in the Red Sea Project.
