Turning back the sands of time
Once a critical meeting point for bygone civilisations, today AlUla is home to one of the most determined rewilding programmes ever seen. The key to its success is arguably a small tree nursery run by horticulturist Sami Almaki. The ambition? To grow and plant 10 million trees by 2035
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This tree nursery is the brainchild of 28-year-old, Sami Almaki — acting director of horticulture and plant nurseries for AlUla — and is key to the success of one of the world’s most ambitious rewilding programmes. Although small in size, it has the capacity to grow more than 300 thousand seedlings per year.
Trees, with their natural ability to sequester carbon — to draw it from the atmosphere and lock it up as wood — are an easy-to-understand way of tackling the climate emergency. Most of last year’s Cop26’s headline-grabbing promises were an end to deforestation by 2030. But the ambitions here in AlUla go beyond capturing carbon.
To date, 110,000 seedlings have been planted in AlUla and over 200 captive-bred oryx and gazelle have already been released. “All the Saudi conservationists are telling the same story, but different chapters,” explains Sami. “We are all part of the bigger story of native species.” By 2030, the hope is that the landscape will be able to support a full ecosystem.
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Find out more about the Saudi Green Initiative here: greeninitiatives.gov.sa
Sami glances down at the pots of small saplings at his feet. “But, it can take a year to get this far,” he says. “We start by collecting seeds and taking cuttings, which then spend two to three months in the greenhouse, then another three months in the shade before moving to an open area. Finally, trucks come to collect the saplings and we take them off for planting.”
However, rewilding isn’t as simple as just planting trees, especially since poorly planned planting can actually increase CO2 emissions and reduce biodiversity.
The ambition is that one day in the not-so-distant future, Arabian leopards will once again roam the sands of AlUla. But, as Sami says, “Unless the right plant structure is in place to feed the gazelles, the apex predators won’t have anything to eat.”
Just over 500 km south-east of Sharm El-Sheikh where the complex and bombastic discussions of Cop27 are taking place, Sami Almaki stands on a sunlit plain in AlUla watching his saplings being tended to. Many of the saplings have been planted by local families — children, parents and grandparents — in total more than 3,500 volunteers have participated. While the world leaders are deciding our planet’s future, this is a good place to be: bearing witness to a hopeful, palpable gesture of climate action.
“The first thing we needed was knowledge,” explains Sami. “What plants would have been growing here before the land was degraded? It’s hard to tell what this landscape looked like say 200 years ago, but plants do grow in communities. So we looked at the communities and worked out what was missing.”
But the answer didn’t just come from the plant communities. “Storytelling was very important too,” adds Sami. “We spoke to the older generations of Bedouin, who recalled a treasure of rich stories about the landscapes they grew up in.”
Today, AlUla has five nature reserves and 12,500 sq km of land under protection, which is 50% of the ambition to have 80% of land to be preserved. “We are building the circle of life,” says Sami. “We have to propagate native species, return them back to nature in the right way and work to build eco-systems. All these layers have to be in place before you can start to reintroduce wildlife”.
The tree nursery that began with just 10 native species, has now produced over 60 native plants with an aim of reaching 200. Today, one sapling from each species is proudly lined up in the nursery’s showcase. “Each plant has its own story,” says Sami. “We’re still learning about the plants and their behaviours. The large flowering fire bush — or Calligonum comosum L`Her — is a perennial, which thrives in barren, harsh sands. It not only stabilises the landscape, but the flowers are edible and it can indicate water sources. One of the most important tree and shrub groups in Saudi Arabia, acacias flourish in Wadi beds, banks and runnels.
Back at COP27, one of the emerging central themes is implementation. On stage, a world leader makes the impassioned plea that only humanity — not markets — can end the climate crisis. And back in the nursery of AlUla watching the thousands of saplings planted by thousands of volunteers take root, it’s hard to disagree.
Sami Almaki, who along with a dedicated team and 3,500 volunteers is rewilding the deserts of AlUla (David Chancellor)
Technicians Mohammad Ahmad and Suliman Safi plant retama retame seeds, a legume shrub with tiny white flowers that is used to stabilise sand dunes
(David Chancellor)
Acacia trees are a keystone species with most desert fauna depending on them, either directly or indirectly, for food and shade (David Chancellor)
Grown from seeds and cuttings, these saplings are on the final part of their journey before being returned to the nature reserver where they were harvested
(David Chancellor)
Acacia gerrardii destined for the Sharaan Nature Reserve for Afforestation Project. (David Chancellor)
Sami Almalki
Acting Director of Horticulture, AlUla
All the Saudi conservationists are telling the same story, but different chapters, we are all part of the bigger story of native species
Technicians Mohammad Ahmad and Suliman Safi plant retama retame seeds, a legume shrub with tiny white flowers that is used to stabilise sand dunes (David Chancellor)
The evergreen Ziziphus spina-christ (believed by historians to be the tree from which Jesus’ crown of thorns was made) can draw water from deep underground, making it hardy enough to withstand rising temperatures and dryness (David Chancellor)
An Osprey spotted on the Red Sea coast
A pair of Dolphins observed in the Red Sea
A Lionfish observed by Red Sea Global scientists in the Red Sea
Photographer David Chancellor meets Sami Almaki