Environment Authority carries out campaign to plant one million seeds in Dhofar

Muscat: The Environment Authority (EA) is carrying out a campaign to plant one million seeds in the mountains of Dhofar Governorate.

The Environment Authority, represented by the Directorate General of Environment in the Governorate of Dhofar, has started an extensive campaign to plant one million seeds of wild plants in the mountains of the governorate. The campaign will continue until the 26th of July.

 The campaign comes within the objectives of the Environment Agency to propagate local wild plants to achieve part of the goals of the national initiative to plant ten million trees in the Sultanate of Oman.

Said bin Mohammed Al Shehri, head of the Biodiversity Department at the Directorate General of Environment in Dhofar Governorate, said that the campaign is carried out annually in areas affected by the Khareef season, from the Wilayat of Mirbat in the east to the Wilayat of Dhalkut in the west, by focusing on targeting the fenced sites of the authority and some other government agencies, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, with the aim of ensuring appropriate conditions for the stages of plant growth and protecting them from the effects of overgrasing in the mountains of the governorate.

Al Shehri explained that the stages of preparation for this campaign begin with collecting quantities of wild plant seeds, preparing, sorting and preserving them in anticipation of rain, so that the seeds are planted immediately after the presence of moisture in the soil and its saturation with water.

 The head of the Department of Biological Diversity in Al-Nadb indicated that about 108,000 seeds were planted in the Wilayats of Thumrait and Salalah in 2023, when the governorate's atmosphere was affected by an air depression last April.

 The campaign aims to plant the seeds of various wild trees for which the Sultanate of Oman and Dhofar Governorate is famous in particular, including Sidr, wild figs (Al-Ghayit), Aloe Vera, and Al-Khufut, with the aim of increasing the vegetation cover in the natural and pastoral areas in the Dhofar Governorate.