Aspire Zone - Qatar’s green aspiration

The weather in Qatar can exceed 40 degrees Celsius in the sweltering summer. The native flora is sparse but well adjusted to surviving such extreme temperatures, but when Doha’s 2.5 square kilometre sporting complex, Aspire Zone, transplanted scores of foreign trees, special steps were taken to ensure their survival.

Aspire Logistics recognised that the key to establishing these transplanted trees was good root growth. The department set itself the goal of getting the trees’ root balls back to their pre-transplant size and strength, and planned to use enriched biochar (biochar blended with beneficial fungi and bacteria) to do it.

Looking abroad, the department discovered British-based Carbon Gold and soon an international deal was struck to use enriched biochar.

Before Aspire Logistics had discovered Carbon Gold, the trees were going into shock during the summer months, but since May 2014, Aspire Logistics has been applying Carbon Gold’s enriched biochar to its transplanted trees three times a year.

Since the treatment began, the transplanted trees have become much better at handling the stress of summer. In the Aspire Zone’s urban areas, the loss of trees due to temperature shock has decreased significantly, and the tree loss in Aspire Park has reduced completely with zero trees dying due to temperature shock.