Egypt’s Minister of Environment,Dr. Yasmin Fouad, held a meeting with representatives from Sino-Wai, a Chinese company specializing in forest plantation, reforestation, and environmental restoration. The discussion focused on potential collaboration to implement forestation and reforestation projects in Egypt, aimed at combating climate change, desertification, and land degradation.
The meeting, attended by Dr. Ali Abu Sena, head of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Dr. Mohamed Salem, nature protection advisor, and other key officials, included a presentation from the Chinese company outlining their vision for expanding operations in Egypt. The proposed projects include innovative techniques for restoring wetland areas, degraded land, reducing carbon emissions, and industrial afforestation, along with knowledge exchange in land sciences, forests, and biodiversity.
Dr. Yasmin Fouad learned about the company’s advanced technologies in forestation, including seed ball technology. This method promotes forest growth by utilizing moisture in the soil and air as a water source, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change and counter desertification. The company also presented successful forestation projects implemented in countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, and Tunisia.
The Minister emphasized the importance of ensuring that forestation technologies align with Egypt’s water scarcity challenges, ensuring that these efforts do not exacerbate the water shortage. She also discussed the potential of utilizing such projects for carbon credits, especially following the launch of Egypt’s first voluntary carbon market.
Dr. Fouad highlighted the significant role of this technology in achieving land restoration and increasing green spaces, which are key strategies for tackling climate change, combating desertification, and restoring degraded lands.
Representatives from Sino-Wai emphasized that forest plantation is an effective solution for reducing carbon emissions, a strategy that has been adopted by China to address the challenge of losing one million hectares of arable land annually. They reiterated the importance of forestation and land restoration technologies as sustainable solutions, as highlighted in recent climate and desertification conferences.
The company also shared its collaboration efforts with local governments in ecological restoration, improving rainfall patterns, enhancing environmental sustainability, and supporting carbon neutrality goals by engaging with industry stakeholders and promoting carbon credit trading in forests.
