By Kingsley Dixon and Nancy Shaw
The first symposium dedicated to native seeds in dryland restoration organised by INSR and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) was held in November in Kuwait City. With almost 200 delegates from some of the most impressive dryland regions of the world from the Sudan to the Sahara to the Australian deserts, the three day meeting and field trip was an inspiring event as scientists and practitioners shared the latest research and technologies for saving and restoring the world’s drylands.
Hosted in the magnificent conference facilities at KISR on the shores of the Arabian Gulf replete with several thousand flamingos the conference could not be held in a more appropriate place as Kuwait embarks on a $450M restoration of the lands degraded during the Iraq invasion.
The meeting was an outstanding opportunity for INSR to reach out the predominantly Arab world who were present to ensure that networking with our global membership enables these countries to collaborate and share knowledge and experiences.
A highlight of the meeting was the launch of both the INSR brochure in Arabic and the Arabic version of the International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration that means these documents reach the 300 million Arab speakers across the world.
