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62 > qatar today > may 2013

affairs > local

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some questions

to be answered in

further researCh

how muCh seasurfaCe do we haveavailable in theworld for floatingmangroves?

01how many tonnesof Carbon Can besequestrated?how muChnitrogen,potassium andphosphate Can betaken out of thewater?

02howmuCh wouldit Cost?

03what are the antiCipatedenvironmental impaCtsof thousands andthousands of squarekilometres of thesefloating mangroves? howwould that impaCt thetemperature of the waterunderneath?

04what otherCoastal areasare suitablefor mangroveplantation,suCh as sabkhat,(salt flats) forexample?

05

development > tag this


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qatar today > may 2013 > 63

experts on biodiversity understandthe immeasurable serviCe thatmangrovesprovide in reduCingCarbon levels in the atmosphere.

attempts are being made toConserve them in areaswhere theysurvive naturally, are ongoingand a new projeCt supporting thegrowth of floating mangroves is

now under way at lusail marina.the experiment is the first of itskind to investigate the use offloating mangroves for Carbonsequestration the Capturing of

Carbon emissions.

by rory Coen


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64 > qatar today > may 2013

Mangrove orests are a

unique and rich eco-

system ound along

intertidal coastlines

at tropical and sub-

tropical latitudes.

In Qatar, there are

approximately ten

mangrove sites concentrated in the east,

north and northwest o the country, most

notably in Al Khor. The plants play a ma-

jor role in climate change mitigation: their

carbon sequestration potential is 50 times

greater than that o tropical orests and 10

times that o the temperate orests ound in

Northern Europe. According to research by

the United Nations Educational, Scientic

and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), they

can absorb up to 1.5 tonnes o carbon per

year per hectare.

However, their presence is being com-

promised by a number o actors such as

coastal development projects, oil spillages

and pollution by solid waste like plastic,

aluminium and glass. Where once they cov-

ered 32 million hectares worldwide, they

now cover only 15 million. But while their

presence is declining across the world, and

indeed the Gul, places such as Eritrea and

Abu Dhabi have dedicated resources to re-

versing this trend. Its hoped that Qatar will

ollow their lead.

I read in the Gulf Times some months

ago that Qatar has an annual CO2 equiva-

lent emission o 85 million tonnes o car-

bon, said Benno Boer, UNESCOs Ecolog-

ical Sciences Adviser or the Arab Region.

However, one hectare o mangroves can

only sequestrate 1.5 million tonnes per

year. So i we extrapolate that, then we

come to the conclusion that in Qatar alone

we would need a surace o 600,000 square

kilometres o mangroves to sequestrate

the total carbon output o one year. But we

can continue that or about 500 years, be-

cause each hectare o mangrove sediment

can store up to 700 tonnes o carbon in

the sediment.

Awareness, management and conserva-

tion plans need to be developed, in order to

generate the needed attention with top-lev-

el political support. Abu Dhabi deserves ap-

plause, because it is very active in mangrove

development since the 1970s, and is one o

the ew countries in the world that actual-

ly shows an increase in mangrove cover-

age, and this is based on political will and

understanding, he continued.

Climate tolerant

These ecosystems can thrive in hot dry cli-

mates without any supply o resh water

because they are halophytic or seawa-

ter-tolerant plants. Qatari-owned company

Mourjan Marinas IGY approached UNES-

CO last year about the possibility o putting

mangroves into foating containers on their

jetty so they wouldnt have to use resh wa-

ter to irrigate them the seawater could

percolate up rom below. Their question

intrigued the global agency.

In the past, some have suggested pro-

ducing mangroves in inland deserts under

seawater irrigation to make the deserts

times greaterthan tropiCalforests and

mangrovesCarbonsequestration

potential is

times that ofthe temperateforests

million km2 oCeansurfaCe,but only

i%is suitable due totemperature andnutrient availability

Benno Boer, eclgicl Scics avis f h abrgi UneSCo (hi lf) ss wih h fficils h Lusil mi ls h.

development > tag this


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qatar today > may 2013 > 65

green, said Boer. However, this is a con-

troversial approach due to the dangers o

irreversible salinisation o soils and ground

water, as well as habitat loss. This foating

mangroves experiment is totally unique

and suggests an alternative method which

has not yet grasped the attention o the cli-

mate change movement.

Boer had to emphasise the scale o what

could be achieved. Floating mangroves

could potentially cover millions o hect-

ares o the coastal sub-tropical and tropical

oceans. So rom a simple idea o using the

seawater in a jetty to irrigate mangroves, it

could propagate into covering millions o

hectares o the sub-tropical oceans. It could

be a chance to sequester carbon and to do it

protably as well.

Floating mangroves can be developed

into large-scale cash crop systems in the

sub-tropical and tropical coastal oceans

o the world, such as biouel and livestock

odder, generating jobs, income and prot,

continued Boer, but we really need to study

the impact o this proposal more. We need

to develop specic prototypes and study

how much carbon they can really seques-

trate and how much nitrogen, potassium

and phosphate they can get out o the sea.

We need to see what engineering and de-

sign to apply, as well as conduct easibility

studies. We must nd very good university

students or this, otherwise it wont work.

At least ve Qatar University students

are expected to develop medium-scale pro-

totypes in the second phase o the activi-

ty. The foating mangroves can be viewed

in their planter boxes at Lusail Marina,

Lusail City.

The conservation o the local environ-

ment and being as eco-riendly as we can is

extremely important to Mourjan Marinas

IGY, said Wayne Sheperd, the companys

General Manager. We care to ensure that

all o our marinas are built and maintained

with the greatest sensitivity to the local

environment.

For a long time it has been Mourjans

vision to have this break-through initiative

incorporated into the design and construc-

tion o our marinas, and we are delighted

to partner with UNESCO and Lusail Real

Estate Development Company to make it a

reality. We are very excited

"a, c , c . a d , c c c 1970, c c c c, c ."

Benno Boer,

eclgicl Scic avis f ab rgi,

UneSCo

world's 10 most mangrove-riCh

Countries [september 2010]

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