Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) and Dubai Municipality jointly organized a Mangrove Tree Planting initiative recently at Jebel Ali Wetland Sanctuary to mark the UAE’s Golden Jubilee and support sustainability efforts in line with the UAE’s Net-Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative, WAM reports.
The Mangrove Tree Planting initiative was part of the corporate social and environmental responsibility program in line with the UAE’s ambition to expand its mangrove cover by planting 100 million mangroves by 2030. This would see an increase of 70 million mangroves on the 30 million saline-tolerant trees by 2030 commitment declared initially as part of the second Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. The new target was confirmed in November 2021, further to the announcement by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that the UAE will host the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), taking place in 2023.
The Mangrove Tree Planting event was hosted in the heart of the Jebel Ali Wetland Sanctuary. This spectacular 2,000-hectare reserve was added to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance in 2018. The coastal and marine wetland comprises areas of coral reefs, mangroves, shallow lagoons, seagrass beds, oyster beds and sandy shorelines, which maintain a healthy and diverse wetland habitat that provides shelter for over 500 marine species.
The Mangrove Tree Planting initiative supports ongoing sustainable development strategies undertaken by the Department of Economy and Tourism and Dubai Municipality to combat climate change and preserve and protect natural bio-diversities and ecosystems while strengthening Dubai’s position as a sustainable destination.
The initiative follows the recent announcement that the UAE plans to invest over AED600 billion as part of the UAE’s efforts to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
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Mangroves could save any country from climate change. But they can compensate for its impact. This will not help us against rising sea levels, but we must plant many of these trees to limit the negative impacts of the current trend. They absorb a lot of carbon dioxide and have a world record-level size square area. Mangroves in the Arabian Gulf are comparable to Amazon rainforests, says the General Secretary of Azraq Kimberley Monges in our exclusive interview.
