The Al Baydha Project, in rural, western Saudi Arabia, is a

land restoration Land restoration, which may include renaturalisation or rewilding, is the process of restoring land to a different or previous state with an intended purpose. That purpose can be a variety of things such as what follows: being safe for humans, pl ...

, poverty-alleviation, and heritage preservation program, based on principles of permacultural and

hydrological Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

design. Located roughly south of

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, in

Makkah Province Mecca Province (, ), officially Makkah Province, is one of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia. It is the third-largest province by area at and the most populous with a population of 8,557,766 as of 2017, of which 4,041,189 were foreign nationals a ...

, Al Baydha is an area characterized by the rocky, arid,

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geography, geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an highland, upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low terrain, relief hill ...

of the Hijaz Mountains.

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

tribes are the major residents of this region. Founded in 2009 by Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, Harvard ethicist Mona Hamdy, and Stanford permaculturist Neal Spackman, Al Baydha has begun to see practical and

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

results.

Project goals

Most notably, Al Baydha's emphasis is on creating an economy for the inhabitants of Al Baydha that is socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically sustainable. The project's main objective is to create financial and social independence for the inhabitants by training, educating and employing them in the infrastructure and capacity building activities undertaken by the Al Baydha Project. Al Baydha's environmental goal is the reversal of

desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...

. This is accomplished largely via

rainwater harvesting Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof-like surface and redirected to a Rainwater tank, tank, cistern, deep pit (well, shaft, or borehole), Aquifer s ...

, through utilization of rock terraces and

gabion A gabion (from Italian ''gabbione'' meaning "big cage"; from Italian ''gabbia'' and Latin ''cavea'' meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building ...

s (or small check dams), as well as catchment of runoff into swale lines. These support

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: natural Regeneration (biology), regeneration, agroforestry and Tree plantation, tree plan ...

of drought-resistant trees, such as

date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet #Fruits, fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across North Africa, northern A ...

s, in the

natural landscape A natural landscape is the original landscape that exists before it is acted upon by human culture. The natural landscape and the cultural landscape are separate parts of the landscape. However, in the 21st century, landscapes that are totally ...

. Another focus of the program is on slowing down

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash f ...

s in the highlands, and, over time, converting them into seasonal streams or

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

s. In the long-term future, Al Baydha hopes to transform the region into a savanna ecosystem, in part, by means of assisted natural regeneration,

conservation grazing Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi- feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats.

, and the effects of

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) refers to the combined processes which move water from the Earth's surface (open water and ice surfaces, bare soil and vegetation) into the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of w ...

and atmospheric moisture recycling.

Site development after the end of artificial irrigation

In 2016, the Al Baydha Project received a commendation from Prince Khaled Al Faisal for innovative work undertaken by the inhabitants of Al Baydha as a model of national excellence in humanitarianism, sustainability, and innovation. Th
same year funding stopped and Neal Spackman needed to shut off water to the irrigation pipes
The trees started to die. He told those involved in the project that the true test would be to see if the trees could live without being watered. Later that winter the trees survived and thrived, proving testament to the power of ancient terrace farming. In a 2020 documentary about the Al Baydha Project, Spackman has called the project "a testament to the potential of regenerative agricultures and a template for the reforestation of millions of desert landscapes in the Arabian peninsula and beyond."

Similar projects

A similar project, overseen by permaculturist Geoff Lawton (who advised on the design of Al Baydha), has already achieved success in

Wadi Rum Wadi Rum ( ''Wādī Ramm'', also ''Wādī al-Ramm''), known also as the Valley of the Moon ( ''Wādī al-Qamar''), is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, near the border with Saudi Arabia and about to the east of ...

, in southern

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

References

External links

Neal Spackman's personal website and blogInterview with Neal Spackman (2014)
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527135321/http://www.permaculturevoices.com/100-degrees-and-3-inches-of-rain-greening-saudi-arabia-with-neal-spackman-pvp078/ , date=2018-05-27
Neal Spackman's Project updates on PermacultureNews.org
2009 establishments in Saudi Arabia Agricultural organisations based in Saudi Arabia Appropriate technology organizations Bedouins in Saudi Arabia Conservation projects Desert greening Ecological restoration Land reclamation Environmental organisations based in Saudi Arabia Mecca Province Permaculture organizations Projects established in 2009 Rural community development Science and technology in Saudi Arabia Sustainable agriculture Wadis of Saudi Arabia Water conservation Water in Saudi Arabia Water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia