Saudi Green Initiative: 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia, 2021 to 2026

The Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) was announced in March 2021 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The National reported on 5 April 2021 that the Initiative would attract more than 700 billion riyals ($186.63 billion) in investment and listed a target to "Plant 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia and 50 billion across the Middle East"; it quoted the Crown Prince as saying the aims were "to raise vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, combat pollution and land degradation". It also reported two climate initiatives worth 39 billion riyals ($10.4bn), "with Saudi Arabia contributing 15 per cent". In October 2023 the SGI announced a roadmap in a press statement: Phase 1 would plant 600 million trees from 2024 to 2030 and Phase 2 the remainder after 2030, with trees chosen to suit native varieties and placed in cities, highways and greenbelts; the statement gave no total hectares, costs or budget.

Official progress figures, as reported: 18 million trees and 60,000 hectares restored in 2023 (Climate Scorecard); 43.9 million trees and 94,000 hectares rehabilitated since launch (Asharq Al-Awsat, 22 July 2024, citing unnamed sources); more than 95 million trees and more than 111,000 hectares rehabilitated over three years (Gulf News, 1 November 2024); over 151 million trees and 500,000 hectares rehabilitated, stated by Environment, Water and Agriculture Minister Abdulrahman Al-Fadley (Arab News, 31 July 2025); and, on the Ministry's page dated 27 March 2026, over 159 million trees and the first one million hectares restored, with restored land at 18,000 hectares at the start and 250,000 hectares by 2024 and 2.5 million hectares expected by 2030. The UNCCD Executive Secretary Dr. Yasmine Fouad was quoted on the Ministry's page: "This achievement proves that land restoration is possible even in the most challenging environments".

The target area has been reported with two values. The Ministry's 2026 page and Gulf News (2024) give 40 million hectares; Asharq Al-Awsat (2024) gives 74 million hectares of degraded land and Climate Fact Checks (2026) gives 74.8 million hectares. Asharq Al-Awsat reported, citing unnamed sources, that the Initiative planned to integrate existing public, private and nonprofit environmental projects and that all sectors had been asked to report past tree-planting activity to the national afforestation programme.

No independent measurement of the number of trees planted, their survival or their effect was found in the sources reviewed. Climate Fact Checks (13 January 2026) attributes to "a 2022 study", not identified on its page, an estimate that irrigating the planned trees would need about 1.53 billion m3 of treated sewage water, about 4.2 million m3 per day; this was not verified. Climate Scorecard (13 July 2023) reported that critics call the initiative "greenwashing" and the targets "bordering on the impossible", without naming the critics.