Sheikh Hamdan Bin-Zayed, the Emirati ruler’s representative in the western region of Abu Dhabi, last week visited the Israeli pavilion and the JNF pavilion at the Dubai Expo.
The JNF representative at the Expo Naveh Shahar told the Sheikh about JNF’s advanced technologies for agriculture in desert conditions, as well as the organization’s desire to expand cooperation between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Shachar gave the Sheikh a gift: a framed relief of a JNF tree, and told him about the 250 million trees that have been planted by the JNF to date and are helping to address the climate crisis.
The sheik was very interested and asked to hear about JNF’s tree planting enterprise. He assigned one of his advisers to keep in touch with the JNF representative there.
An event with lectures and workshops was held at the JNF pavilion recently, in collaboration with the Israeli Housing Ministry, where experts from JNF, the Housing Ministry, and the Urban Renewal Authority presented different angles for tackling the challenges of urban development in desert peripheral areas. The experts presented various tools for advancing sustainable planning processes from employment, economic, and social aspects. The event also featured four Israeli companies in the field of construction technology with an emphasis on sustainability and the environment.
The event hosted Moroccan businessman, investor, and philanthropist Mohamed Dekkak, who praised the wonderful work that the JNF is doing in protecting the environment and spoke about the opportunity that our era has creates for the people of the region.
AlAnoud Al Hashmi, founder and CEO of the Emirati Futurist Company, congratulated the JNF representatives, noting that the issues with which they deal are also the issues that concern the new Emirati generation, and stressed that she and her nation are committed to addressing them.
The event was also attended by representatives from the Oman pavilion who were impressed by the JNF’s extensive knowledge on issues of regional development in a desert environment.