Gulf Emirs to plant offshoot of Eden project

From : The Sunday Times

THE emirs of the Gulf have transplanted ski slopes, golf courses and the finest art from the West in their search for an instant tourist paradise. Now they want to give it a green tinge by importing their own version of the Eden Project.

The attractions are likely to include tropical rainforests and a low-carbon village just 25 miles from some of the world’s most important oil fields.

The desert biomes will include recreations of the Malaysian and west African jungles, packed with mahogany trees, ferns, orchids and banana plants and teeming with tree frogs, geckos and birds.

The expected site for the first foreign outpost of the Eden Project is alongside offshoots of the Louvre and the Guggenheim on Saadiyat Island, which is connected to Abu Dhabi city by motorway.

The project is one of five proposed offshoots of the Eden Project, based in Cornwall.

Three of them, all in early negotiations, would be in the Gulf.

Tim Smit, chief executive of the Eden Project, said he had insisted it should have an Arab identity. “The thing has to be infused with Arab tradition and motifs, poetry and art,” he said. “They found that an alien concept initially, but there’s a growing awareness in the Gulf of a need for an Arab cultural renaissance, rather than just aping all things western.”