Final report of the UAE Mangroves Annual Carbon Sequestration Trial Assessment now available!

The UAE Mangrove Annual Carbon Sequestration Trial Assessment quantified annual carbon sequestration rates of mangroves in the UAE through radiometric means (Lead-210 and Cesium-137). Such methods offer the most appropriate means to determine carbon sequestration rates for national inventories and coastal management planning. Five sites were selected with 2 samples collected and analyzed, each representing both healthy and areas under stress.

The study finds that soil carbon sequestration rates can be gathered from the mangrove forests in the Khors of the United Arab Emirates through Lead-210 dating, with a calculated total average of 57.67 grams of organic carbon, per square meter, per year (57.67 ± 2.90 g Corg m-2 yr-1) sequestered across all 10 trial sites. This is equivalent to carbon sequestered at a rate of 0.5 tons per hectare per year, in addition to the carbon stocks stored within mangrove tree biomass.

While this carbon sequestration value is only about 1/3 to 1/2 of wet mangrove tropical areas of the world, it is far higher compared to terrestrial soils of arid regions. Carbon sequestration rates found in the UAE are relatively higher compared to other reported rates around the Arabian peninsula.

It is recommended that the governments of the UAE conserve and restore mangrove forest to maintain the richness of the UAE coastal ecosystem, and to maintain the ecosystem services these provide.

Download and read our full report here:
Trial Assessment of UAE Mangroves Soil Carbon Sequestration Final Report (18463 downloads )

Upcoming Webinar on Oceanic Blue Carbon!

The UNEP/GEF Blue Forests Project’s Oceanic Blue Carbon webinar will showcase the recent advances and potential future directions for oceanic blue carbon. An expert panel will discuss how the conservation and restoration of life in the ocean may contribute to climate change mitigation.

Oceanic Blue Carbon Webinar – Thursday, July 15, 2021
6:00pm GST (Abu Dhabi)
10:00am EDT (New York)
16:00pm CEST (Oslo)
12:00am AEST (Sydney) (Next day)

The panel includes Ralph Chami, Assistant Director at the International Monetary Fund, USA, Bárbara Galletti, President of the Cetacea Conservation Center, Chile, and Dr. Trisha Atwood, Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of the Aquatic Ecology and Global Change Lab at Utah State University, USA, and will be moderated by Steven Lutz, Lead for Blue Carbon at GRID-Arendal, Norway.

Additionally, two innovative and unprecedented reports will be launched at this event – national assessments of oceanic blue carbon science and policy in the United Arab Emirates.

This webinar wraps up a month-long series of discussions and stories on blue carbon from around the world.

Register for the webinar here: https://register.gefblueforests.org

To watch the webinar recordings, click here:
https://t.co/rokhHveKCH?amp=1