SC Nurseries
Initiative description: Maintaining the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) Nurseries and using its trees, plants, shrubs and lawn in landscaping around FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ stadiums and training sites.
In 2018, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) established the SC Nurseries to meet the planting requirements for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ venues and surrounding areas. This included the turf required for tournament pitches, and vegetation (ground cover, shrubs, trees) for the green spaces surrounding the stadiums, precincts and training sites.
Located north of Doha, covering 770,000 square metres (equivalent to about 110 football pitches), the nursery is the first of its kind and one of the largest and most diverse such nurseries in the region. It comprises over 250 different types of trees, shrubs, ground covers, succulents, climbers and turf. Many of these plants are native to Qatar, some of which come from local residents, and other species coming from Thailand and Spain to increase the biological diversity.
Many of the trees were transplanted to the SC Nurseries from other parts of Qatar, where they had either grown too large or were in locations earmarked for other developments, including SC construction sites. These trees would otherwise have been permanently removed and ultimately have released carbon to the atmosphere.
As an example, in preparing the Stadium 974 site for stadium construction, more than 1,000 trees were inspected and tagged with a label on each tree to show where it came from. If it was not possible for the trees to be left in place during construction, they were transplanted to the nursery. Trees maintained at the nursery were progressively replanted at stadiums and parks as construction work was completed and landscaping commenced.
Many of the plants at the SC Nurseries are also endemic to the region and drought tolerant. Together with the use of recycled water for irrigation from the adjacent Doha North Sewage Treatment Works, this has helped to minimise the amount of water required for their maintenance. Growing the plants locally also reduces landscaping costs as well as the number of international imports and their associated transport emissions.
As of December 2022, the SC Nurseries had produced 1.1 million m² of turf specially developed to be able to withstand the country’s extreme climate.
After the tournament, the facility will continue to benefit the community by transforming into a public park, further contributing to the SC's efforts to ensure the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ leaves a lasting environmental and social legacy for the State of Qatar.