Dubai's Highly Hyped Million Tree Plan Flops; 80% Dead; Land Will Host World's Biggest Mall
It all began so beautifully, with the ruler of Dubai photographed planting the first tree of his ambitious environmental initiative, as smiling officials applauded around him. In 2010, the One Million Trees initiative was announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai. The aim of the launch was to increase green areas in Dubai through afforestation, while contributing to overall beautification of the city.
The plan was to establish a nursery for the young trees on land contributed by the Dubai Police Academy, to allow them to grow to maturity before sending them out across the emirate. A company called Green Land partnered with a government-backed environmental organisation on the project to develop the tree nursery and began planting the trees.
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That project was postponed in 2016, but one week after that announcement another mega project was announced in its place, Jumeirah Central, a 4.1m sq-metre, £14bn multiuse city. This plan was also conceived by Dubai Holding, which had ownership of this land and passed it to subsidiaries. “These mega projects convey prestige and modernity to help them attract affluent residents, especially in Dubai. The aim is not necessarily sustainability,” said Mohammad al-Saidi, an associate professor, Centre for Sustainable Development at Qatar University. According to documents seen by the Guardian, Green Land, founded by Hamza Nazzal, was given several notices between December 2016 and March 2017 to transfer the trees and evacuate the nursery, before water and electricity would be cut off as part of the construction process.
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Despite multiple attempts by Green Land, no deals were made to sell the trees and transfer them outside of the nursery before construction began. Eventually, Jumeirah Central was put on hold in October 2017, with the company last saying they were “re-evaluating” plans while looking at other projects in time for Expo 2020. In the meantime, the trees had almost entirely died. An expert site visit in March 2018 to the nursery concluded that some trees were damaged because of a lack of water. The report counted a total of 599,338 unharmed trees remaining on the site, fewer than half of what was initially planted. Now close to 80% of them are dead, according to nursery workers, and a foreman who last visited the site in December 2020.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/24/1m-trees-tree-graveyard-dubai-conservation-plans-desertification-real-estate