Head of Corporate Environment and Sustainability at the Red Sea Development Company Raed Al-Baseet stressed that the company, through its one-million square meters nursery, seeks to plant more than 15 million plants and saplings to enrich the green cover in the project's environment, in a bid to realize the Saudi Vision 2030 that stressed the need to preserve and sustain natural resources in the Red Sea Project. Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), he said that "Environment monitoring is the permanent companion for the Red Sea Project since the planning phases and the initial and current construction phase until completing the scheme, where the company seeks to increase the percentage of seaweeds that absorb carbon dioxide and increase the percentage of mangrove trees and coral reefs, in addition to its endeavors to identify areas with high environmental values, something that the company has already achieved through approving the development of 22 islands out of 90 at the location to make them a tourist destination with a different environmental character. He added: "We know, since the inception of the project, that this area will become a destination for renewable tourism and that its ecological system is completely sensitive, and to ensure achieving ecological diversity and balance, which we aspire to realize by 2040, we have conducted comprehensive ecological surveys for all the lands of the project, taking into consideration the long-term environmental impacts of the operational actions of the scheme." Al-Baseet continued: "The ecological team at the company plays a vital role in most aspects of the project, where its members focus on enhancing the environment through choosing the proper engineering designs and abiding by environmental considerations, whether they are adopted before or after any phase of developing the project, in addition to cooperation with relevant external organizational bodies to guarantee implementing sustainable commitments in the project in a proper way." As for ecological initiatives that the company works on, he said that the company has launched an initiative under the motto "Blooming the Red Sea", which is an initiative that was implemented in cooperation with the National Center for Vegetation Cover and Tabuk University to incubate 17,000 saplings of local plants in the nursery of the project, through which the company trained volunteers of the university students to take care of the saplings until reaching the proper length before, several months later, planting them in the project location. Al-Baseet noted that the company has also contributed to the Green Saudi Arabia Initiative and Middle East Green Initiative that are concerned with reducing carbon emissions, decreasing noise, achieving ecological balance, providing natural environments and safe havens for organisms and improving natural views, in addition to increasing awareness on the importance of environment and social participation in preserving the environment, where the company, in February, 2020, inaugurated the project's nursery, which is considered the biggest in the region to plant whatever that can serve the environment of the project, such as proper plants for the environment of the Red Sea and its coasts.
