Abu Dhabi nature technology company recognized for NabatOS, its AI-powered platform connecting ecosystem assessment, restoration, monitoring and verification at scale
ABU DHABI, UAE – September, 2026 – Nabat, the Abu Dhabi nature technology company building the Operating System for Nature, has been selected as one of 10 winners of the Scaling Land Restoration Challenge and named an UpLink Venture.
The challenge was launched by the World Economic Forum’s UpLink platform to identify solutions capable of accelerating and commercializing land restoration while delivering measurable outcomes.
Across the world, degraded ecosystems are losing their ability to protect coastlines, sustain biodiversity, and support the communities and economies that depend on them. Restoring them is increasingly essential – but restoration remains difficult to scale.
Decisions on where to intervene, what action to take and whether ecosystems are recovering are often fragmented across data, tools and operations. This can mean acting before an ecosystem is sufficiently understood – including whether intervention is needed at all – and measuring success by activity rather than recovery.
Nabat addresses this through NabatOS, its Operating System for Nature. Nabat’s AI-powered environmental platform connects ecosystem intelligence with the workflows needed to protect, restore and monitor nature over time – understanding environmental conditions, identifying where action can create value – including when not to intervene – and measuring what happens afterwards.
In the UAE, Nabat is deploying this approach through multi-year habitat conservation and restoration programs. With the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, it has assessed environmental conditions across more than 14,000 hectares of coastline and initiated restoration across more than 2,000 hectares, monitoring seeds establishment, ecosystem health and biodiversity to verify whether ecological function is returning.
Nabat is now taking this approach to other regions where coastal and dryland ecosystems are under similar pressure – expanding across the GCC and into Southeast Asia.
Reda Nidhakou, CEO of Nabat, said:
“Nature is our most essential infrastructure – it gives us food, water, climate stability and the living systems that make life possible. At Nabat, we believe AI and technology should be used for good: to help us understand nature better, make wiser decisions and protect its ability to do what it was created to do.”
Mehdi Ajana, Vice President of Strategy and Growth at Nabat, added:
“For restoration, that means moving beyond ‘plant and hope’ – knowing where to act, when not to act, and measuring success by what survives and whether ecosystem function returns. Being selected as an UpLink Venture by the World Economic Forum is meaningful recognition of that approach – and of the opportunity to take it much further.”
As an UpLink Venture, Nabat will deepen engagement with governments, landowners, corporations, scientists and capital providers seeking credible ways to conserve and restore nature at scale. Its ambition is to help build the intelligence and operational infrastructure for nature to be better understood, protected, restored, and monitored.
About Nabat.ai:
Nabat is a nature technology company building the Operating System for Nature – an end-to-end AI platform that enables governments, corporations and project developers to assess, restore and monitor coastal, marine and dryland ecosystems at scale. Built on NabatOS and powered by Ether, Nabat’s proprietary geospatial AI foundation model, the platform turns satellite, aerial and field data into science-grade, verifiable outcomes across the full restoration pipeline – from site assessment and restoration design to autonomous seed dispersal and long-term monitoring. For more information, visit Nabat.ai.
Nabat is part of VentureOne, the commercialization arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).
Notes to editors – sources:
1. Global dryland degradation (~1 billion ha, 10–20% of drylands): FAO (2020), Global Drylands Assessment; UNCCD Science-Policy Interface, Global Dryland Report, 2024.
2. Manual vs. technology-enabled restoration cost (~$10k vs. <$3k per hectare) and mangrove restoration project failure rate (80%): reported mangrove restoration project outcomes (Nature); Global Mangrove Alliance, Best Practice Guidelines for Mangrove Restoration, 2023.
