Soon after the project’s official starting date, several representatives of the industrial partner AMENHYD in the Mara-Mediterra Partnership met up with Algeria’s General Directorate of Forests with a view to establish a joint collaboration in the planned research activities in the Algerian Case Study.

The prime objective of the meeting was to explore possible solutions to the obstacles that contributed to slowing down the success of the Green Dam, Algeria’s flagship project against the advance of the desert. In particular, soil degradation in areas dedicated to reforestation, and the growing impact of climate change, are turning these areas into hostile environments.

AMENHYD presented the General Directorate of Forests with its ambition to develop a novel agro-ecological solution through the PRIMA funded Mara-Mediterra project. The new approach is based on the artificial creation of a micro-ecosystem at the level of each tree that will be planted in the experimental afforestation site at Djelfa. This effort will be combined with the use of renewable energies, the valorization of by-products, such as sludge from Djelfa’s wastewater treatment plant, and the use of digital monitoring tools. AMENHYD anticipates that this effort will support Algeria’s commitment to decreasing GHGs emissions by 7% by 2030.