This Desert Is Going to Be Green Again

A Dutch firm plans on regreening the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, an ambitious restoration project designed to protect and replenish the natural world, restoring wetlands and boosting the ecosystem.

“There are certain points in this world where, if we accumulate our joint energy, we can make a big difference,” says Ties van der Hoeven, co-founder of the Weather Makers, about the reforestation project of the triangular land that connects Egypt to Asia.

Inspired by another restoration project, where a dry, barren, and heavily eroded landscape in northern China was turned into green valleys and productive farmland in the span of 20 years, Weather Makers are developing an eco-machine – a living technology – made of barrels each containing a mini-ecosystem to grow plants and produce fresh water. When the plants and the soil inside the greenhouse reach a certain maturity, they become self-sustainable – leaving little ecologies behind – and the process can start over in a different spot.