The Mangrove Forest, which will comprise of coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass begs and a natural beach has recently opened at the Jebel Al Wildlife.
The Mangrove Forest will consist of 15km of Mangroves in the area, plus 6km of wetlands. The area is expected to attract a lot of wildlife including crabs, oysters, birds and gazelles. Mangroves play a key part in the environment of the UAE as they reduce carbon dioxide in the air, and there are plans to have around 60 per cent of Dubai’s land under forest over the next few decades.
This newly-announced area will be protected and environmental experts will utilise the area to develop a full forest by planting new mangroves and adopt older mangroves to ‘maximise the future carbon sequestration.’
Major Ali Al Suweidi, President of EMEG, commented: “The mangrove is a local species and we call it Sena Marina which is a special species in the Gulf. This species grows because of heat and salt water and therefore this species grows very well here. We started to plant this a long time back. The reason we are planting this mangrove is because it soaks up five times more carbon dioxide than any plant.”
