New floating mangrove project raises green hopes

Officials of Unesco, Mourjan Marinas IGY and Lusail Real Estate Development Company at the project launch. PICTURES: Joey AguilarBy Joey Aguilar/Staff ReporterUnesco, together with private partners in Qatar, is banking on a floating mangrove project that can significantly reduce carbon emissions.Dr Benno Böer, Unesco ecological sciences adviser, told reporters that the idea was to develop carbon sequestration prototypes in Qatar, which could be used in different parts of the world. “They don’t necessarily have to be planted here,” he said.However, there was a need to conduct scientific research first and study how much carbon could be sequestrated by the floating mangroves. “We need to conduct a research, hopefully with the involvement of Qatar University. In the past, mangroves covered around 32mn hectares of land globally; now, only 15mn hectares are left,” he said during the launch at Marina Promenade in Lusail City.Dr Böer said several issues could be resolved through these researches. These include the amount of carbon that can be sequestrated, its cost and the anticipated environmental impact. It will also produce results on the impact of large-scale planting of floating mangroves, which can be planted only in tropical and sub-tropical regions, including places with enough nutrients in the water.Citing an earlier report of this paper, he said carbon emissions in Qatar reach 85mn tonnes per year. One hectare of mangroves can sequestrate only about 1.5mn tonnes of carbon. “If we extrapolate that, we can come to the conclusion that for Qatar alone we will need a surface of 600,000sqkm to sequestrate the total carbon for one year.” With the experimental project, it can potentially cover millions of hectares in various places given the right implementation.The adviser disclosed that at least $2.5mn is needed to develop the prototype, including data research and feasibility studies. “We also need to see what engineering and design have to be applied. Maybe we can do that here in Lusail City in the future,” he said.Dr Böer said a man named Richard, who lives in Mexico, is building islands of empty plastic bottles used for “greenification purposes” and has grown mangroves around it. The group in Qatar, he noted, is constantly getting in touch with him. “Once we develop the prototypes, we would want to bring him over so that we can learn from him about the engineering and design,” he said.While reiterating that they cannot solve all the problems related to climate change, Dr Böer expressed confidence that these efforts can make significant contributions to the cause. “Moreover, we can add profitability to it and generate jobs as well,” he stressed. These include charcoal production and putting biomass incubators or beehives into it to produce mangrove honey.“Our floating mangrove experiment is totally unique and suggests an alternative method that has not yet grabbed the attention of the climate change movement,” he added.In the past, Unesco had received suggestions on how to make deserts green. These included planting mangroves in inland deserts under seawater irrigation. However, these were criticised “due to the dangers of irreversible salinisation of soil and groundwater as well as habitat loss”.Dr Böer is planning a book, The Mangroves of Qatar, after being invited by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage recently. He wants to find out how mangroves have been used in the past and how they have been distributed. Meanwhile, Lusail Real Estate Development Company CEO Essa Mohamed Ali Kaldari has announced that five students will develop the “medium-scale prototypes” in the second phase of the activity.Unesco has partnered with Mourjan Marinas IGY and Lusail Real Estate Development Company with the aim of mitigating the effects of climate change.“Conservation of the local environment and being as eco-friendly as we can is extremely important to Mourjan Marinas IGY. We ensure that all of our marinas are built and maintained with the greatest sensitivity to the local environment,” said Wayne Sheperd, general manager, Mourjan Marinas IGY.