UAE bets on mangroves to fight climate change
STORY: The United Arab Emirates is betting big on mangroves.
The tropical forests thrive in inhospitable conditions…
Capture carbon…
And protect coastal communities against storms and floods.
“These mangroves have proven to be very climate resilient."
So could mangroves be the key to the Gulf State's ambitious fight against climate change?
The UAE has been planting mangrove trees since its founding in the 1970s…
And plans to plant another 100 million by 2030.
The climate ministry says they’ll capture 43,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
In Abu Dhabi’s Eastern Mangrove National Park…
Scientist Hamad al Jailani sees a lot of upsides:
"What makes this species of mangrove, Avicennia Marina, in Abu Dhabi special, is the fact that they are extremely resilient to harsh conditions, they can withstand extreme high salinity.. and super high temperatures, this is very important in the context of climate change, as temperatures around the world increase or become less stable."
The push comes as the UAE prepares to host the COP28 climate summit in December.
Still, the UN says the success rate of artificial mangrove restoration projects can be quite low.
Conservation scientist Brendan Whittington-Jones says the initial focus has to be on quality over quantity.
“So I think it's something that needs to be taken into consideration with mangroves restoration or certainly large mangrove planting initiatives; [which] is the survival of those mangroves for the first couple of years, I would say, rather than a focus just on the initial number that is planted."
Around the world.. global mangrove forests declined 3.4% from 1996 to 2020....
although they’ve stabilized in recent years.
That’s according to the UN Environment Program.
John Burt with New York University Abu Dhabi says he's optimistic about the future of the UAE forests.
“…this is one of the few areas on earth where we see growth of mangroves, and instead of this being a sad story, where development is really impacting the ecosystem, it's actually a story of hope, where we actually see a mangrove ecosystem that is flourishing and growing, as a result of human intervention in these areas."
