Fully integrated in the Berlin School of Mines e.V. (BSM), the new Green Dune International initiative is the purely environmental spin-off from BSM for the developing world. In contrast, it focuses on projects outside the mining sector. Aid shall be provided via BSM funding and other co-operating development agencies, delivering training for self-sustained development.

Water may seem to be everywhere, but only 2.5 percent of it is freshwater, of which some two thirds are locked in ice; annual freshwater precipitation only accounts for a mere 0.008 percent of all earth's water (S. Postel, UNESP, 2004).

As world population expands by a projected 2.6 billion people over the next 30 years, and consumption levels spiral upward, the resulting water problems are bound to intensify. At present, humanity is already using, directly or indirectly, about half of the freshwater supply. This means that for a rising portion of the world's population, there may soon be hardly a drop to drink or to use for irrigation and food production.

This imminent water (and food) shortage will escalate through the intensifying desertification of vast areas every year. Appropriate relief measures will have to integrate the collection of natural air moisture, recycling of waste waters, irrigation with saline waters, and low-cost desalination, as well as changing micro-climates and inducing soil production in arid regions. However, sustainability also requires new concepts to balance local needs (e.g., grazing or fire wood) with land/soil protection schemes.

Green Dune International attempts to fine-tune this sustainability with special techniques for high-stress regions (drought areas and saline soils) and it will accommodate local knowledge about plants and herbal medicines.