“Our message is to plant trees in the desert, especially since the environment was damaged by many factors,” said Khaled Al-Kulaib, head of the Kuwait Oasis team, a branch of the Environmental Voluntary Foundation.
The team is undertaking this on a magnificent scale by planting a triple layered “Green Wall” of 315,000 indigenous trees across 420km. Supported by Kuwait Energy, the ten-year project aims to increase ecological awareness, preserve biodiversity, and improve air quality.
On June 5, in honor of World Environment day, the project was officially inaugurated. And in the reddish, scrubby desert of southern Kuwait, KEC employees planted the wall’s first spindly sapling. Oasis Team’s Al-Kulaib is also advocating for public social responsibility towards nature and encouraging all Kuwaitis to get involved as volunteers. New parents, for example, can buy a tree in their child’s name.
“It gives a person a sense of life,” said Kuwait Energy employee Maha Al-Essa about tree planting.