The production of key resources, such as clean water, clean energy and a sustainable production of food represents some of our time’s greatest challenges. The Sahara Forest Project is a new environmental solution to create re-vegetation and green jobs through profitable production of food, water, clean electricity and biomass in desert areas.
In 2011 The Sahara Forest Project AS entered into cooperation with Yara ASA, the world’s largest supplier of fertilizer and the Qatari company Qafco, the world’s largest single site producer of urea and ammonia. After successfully completing a comprehensive feasibility study on Qatar, the parties signed an agreement to build the first fully operational Sahara Forest Project Pilot Plant in Qatar. The agreement was signed in February 2012 with H.E. Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg and H.E. Prime Minister of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani presiding over the signing.
After an intense construction period The Sahara Forest Project Facility became operational in December 2012. The Sahara Forest Project pilot facility in Qatar provides a unique research platform to demonstrate and optimize environmental technologies that will enable restorative growth in desert areas around the world.
The work done at the Qatar pilot by Yara, Qafco, the SFP research staff, and by members of a large international network of scientific collaborators, will lay sound scientific foundations for bringing restorative growth to Qatar and to deserts around the world.