Tree Nursery
Initiative description: Mitigating GHG emissions by maintaining the SC Tree Nursery and by using its trees, plants, shrubs and lawn in landscaping around FIFA World Cup 2022™ stadiums and training sites.
The SC’s Tree Nursery, the first of its kind in the region, is producing approximately 16,000 trees and 679,000 shrubs which are being used as an integral feature of the tournament preparation, design and operation. By early 2020, 500,000 m² of turf, approximately 5,000 trees and 80,000 shrubs had been planted in stadium precincts and public spaces across Qatar.
Many of the plants are endemic to the region and drought tolerant, which minimizes water requirements for their maintenance. To date, the nursery has also produced 1.2 million m² of turf specially developed to withstand the country’s extreme climate.
The nursery provides stadium precincts with a novel “reuse” approach to landscaping. Hundreds of mature trees from around Qatar have been transplanted to the nursery, where they are maintained until the stadium is ready for landscaping. These trees have come from SC and other construction sites across the country where they otherwise would have been permanently removed. In preparing the Stadium 974 site for stadium construction, for example, more than 875 trees were inspected and tagged. As many as possible were transplanted to the nursery while others were left in place. Trees maintained at the nursery are progressively moved to various stadiums as construction is completed.
The climate benefit arising from the nursery is the natural uptake of carbon dioxide during plant growth. Other environmental benefits of the project include the location of the nursery which is adjacent to Doha North Sewage Treatment Works to take advantage of recycled water for irrigation. Producing the plants locally also reduces landscaping costs, the number of international imports and the associated transport emissions.