The first of the UK-based Eden Project’s overseas sister projects could be headed to Saadiyat Island, about 500m off the coast of Abi Dhabi.

As previously reported in Leisure Opportunities, Eden’s chief executive Tim Smit told our sister magazine Attractions Management that talks were underway to open Eden offshoots in five other places, each reflecting the local culture.

According to The Times, Abu Dhabi, UAE, could be one of those sites. The desert biomes could include “recreations of the Malaysian and west African jungles, with mahogany trees, ferns, orchids and banana plants and teeming with tree frogs, geckos and birds”.

Smit told the paper that the project should have an Arab identity. “The thing has to be infused with Arab tradition and motifs, poetry and art,” he said. “They [the developers] 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.”

Saadiyat Island – a US$27bn (£18.9m) commercial, residential and leisure project – is currently under construction. Developed by the Tourism Development & Investment Company, plans for the island include offshoots of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums, as well as a new performing arts centre and concert hall and an 18-hole golf course.