A structured programme for dryland restoration, sand stabilisation, and oasis-belt regeneration in arid environments across MENA and Central Asia.
Desert2Green is GASBE's structured programme for dryland restoration, sand stabilisation, and the conversion of degraded arid land into ecologically and agriculturally functional terrain. The programme operates at the intersection of soil physics, material science, and field-based vegetation engineering — three disciplines that must work in concert for restoration at scale to be technically credible and practically achievable.
Desert2Green is driven by three partners with complementary and mutually reinforcing roles: SR Begrünungstechnik GmbH (SRBT) contributes field methodology, application systems, and vegetation engineering expertise developed across decades of demanding project environments. SRBT provides regional knowledge, operational presence, and direct field experience in the Arabian Peninsula and wider MENA region. Biopolymer Solutions GmbH (BPS) functions as the programme's material science partner — developing and supplying the biopolymer-based substrate systems and binder formulations that underpin the technical approach at soil level. Together, these three partners form the research and operational core of the programme.
Over two billion people live in dryland regions. Desertification, soil degradation, and the progressive loss of productive land are accelerating under the combined pressure of climate change, land use intensification, and groundwater depletion. The consequences — food insecurity, economic collapse of rural communities, and large-scale human displacement — are measurable and growing.
Conventional responses have a poor track record. Tree planting campaigns without soil preparation fail when seedlings encounter raw, biologically inactive desert substrate. Irrigation-dependent schemes create temporary results that collapse when water availability changes. Short-cycle NGO projects achieve visible outcomes within project timelines but rarely build the soil function required for self-sustaining vegetation. The common failure is the same: attempting to establish vegetation before the physical and chemical conditions in the soil are capable of supporting it.
Desert2Green takes the opposite approach. Soil development precedes vegetation establishment. Surface stabilisation creates the physical conditions for biological activity. Biopolymer-based substrate systems initiate the process of organic matter accumulation, moisture retention, and aggregate formation that must occur before plants can establish and persist without continuous external input. Only when this foundation exists does vegetation establishment become a viable and durable intervention.
Focused on restoring productive capacity to degraded agricultural land in arid and semi-arid zones. The goal is not to replicate intensive agriculture in an environment that cannot support it, but to rebuild the soil function — water infiltration, organic matter content, biological activity, and structural stability — that makes viable low-input food and fodder production possible without permanent irrigation dependency. Soil amendment protocols, water harvesting geometry, and adapted crop and fodder species are combined into site-specific restoration sequences calibrated to local climate, substrate, and land use context.
Target zones: MENA, Sahel, Central AsiaFocused on ecological restoration — rebuilding native vegetation communities on degraded dryland terrain, stabilising mobile sand systems, and progressively developing functional ecosystems that support biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and landscape stability. The approach is sequential: surface fixation first, pioneer species establishment second, succession management third. Each phase must create the conditions that make the next phase viable. Species selection draws on native dryland flora adapted to the specific climatic and edaphic conditions of each site, with particular attention to the role of early-successional species in initiating soil development processes.
Target zones: Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Central Asian steppesDesert2Green operates an internal research group focused on the material science and soil physics dimensions of dryland restoration — the aspects that determine whether field interventions succeed or fail at the substrate level. BPS leads the development and evaluation of biopolymer-based systems for soil consolidation, moisture retention, and the initiation of biological activity in inert desert substrates. This work is conducted in direct connection with field trials coordinated through local contractors in the Arabian Peninsula, providing the feedback loop between laboratory development and field performance that applied research in this area requires. GASBE actively seeks collaboration with universities and research institutions working on arid zone soil science, desertification reversal, and biopolymer applications to accelerate the translation of findings into field-deployable systems.
Partners: SRBT, Biopolymer Solutions GmbHDesert2Green is open to practitioners with dryland field experience, researchers working on arid zone soil science or restoration ecology, environmental organisations and development agencies seeking technically credible implementation partners for landscape-scale programmes, and companies developing or evaluating materials for dryland stabilisation and restoration applications.
The programme is not a funding vehicle or a certification scheme. It is a working collaboration between partners who are prepared to contribute field data, material knowledge, or operational capability to a shared technical programme — and who understand that credible results in this field require sustained commitment, rigorous documentation, and the willingness to report what does not work alongside what does.