Q: As an outsider, how is one to tell if this approach is the right one?
There seems to be a certain amount of dissent.
"Mass tree-planting programs in the desert often cause lasting damage to the ecosystems they are purportedly trying to repair." https://www.noemamag.com/if-the-desert-was-green/
"Israel’s Yatir Forest has been hailed as a green refuge in the Negev that is helping fight climate change. But some Israeli ecologists now contend that it has wiped out important desert ecosystems and shows that forestation projects are not always an unalloyed environmental good." https://e360.yale.edu/features/in-israel-questions-are-raise...