Abstract

The natural habitats in desert areas, like Kuwait, host many wildlife species and a diversity of drought resistant plants that flourish and reproduce annually depending on amount of seasonal precipitation. However, due to urbanization and massive use of rangelands for grazing, camping and wildlife hunting as well as military activities and the spread of oil pollution in large areas, the land became severely damaged and a restoration program deemed necessary to alleviate and mitigate biodiversity losses. Specific restoration measures are required to promote vegetation regeneration. The Kuwait Environmental Remediation Program supported the largest remediation and revegetation program to remediate/rehabilitate and restore the damaged terrestrial environment of Kuwait. Native plants are an important source of genetic material that can withstand harsh climatic conditions and are well adapted to arid environments. Ecological restoration of damaged terrestrial environment required mass production of native plants, use of native plants in landscaping projects, protection of existing desert ecosystems as well as in situ and ex situ conservation of native plants. Effective measures to improve the ecosystem regeneration and the massive production of native plants to restore damaged areas seems to be one of the most effective revegetation methods to address the matter.

Keywords: Ecological restoration; Remediation; Deserts; Arid lands; Vegetation; Bioremediation; Landscaping; Regeneration