Blue Carbon - First Level Exploration of Blue Carbon in the Arabian Peninsula

Figure 7: Blue Carbon ecosystems of the Arabian Peninsula.

A good review of mangroves throughout the region can be found in the 2010 World Atlas of Mangroves (Spalding et al., 2010), published by UNEP-WCMC. Seagrasses Eleven species of seagrass are reported from the Arabian Peninsula. The highest diversity is reported from the Red Sea (11 species) and the lowest in the Arabian Gulf (3 species). Seagrasses are reported from Kuwait, western and eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE (Phillips, 2002).

Mangrove nurseries are known from the UAE and Oman. Due to the legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who instituted a massive reforestation campaign, mangroves have been planted in many locations throughout the UAE since the 1970’s. The Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) recently reintroduced the mangrove species “ Rhizophora mucronata ” which was previously recorded in the UAE. It is largely unknown how much carbon sequestration and storage would result from mangrove afforestation.

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