25
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.
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).
Figure 7:
Blue Carbon ecosystems of the Arabian Peninsula.
