Muscat: Sultanate of Oman has a collection 1,500,000 seed of mangroves from Qurum Nature Reserve and begin to seeding Al Wusta Governorate from July 24 to August 11, 2022, according the Environment Authority (EA).
The Authority indicated that manifold programmes are in place to protect, preserve and to nourish them, said Bader bin Saif al Busaidi, Ecosystems Specialist at the EA.
Primarily, the specialist team visits 5 to 10 sites each year to do conducting surveys according to internationally approved standards transplant mangrove.
The team visits the sites every three months to ensure their soil Ph, water salinity, birds' inhabitance and to observe any visible changes to the plants.
"We invite students from different schools, colleges and universities to experience and learn about these trees and Oman celebrates the World Wetlands Day, which falls on February 2 every year and the specialists carry out some of the work of planting seedlings and all coastal governorates will do multiple programmes for their preservation," Al Busaidi adds.
Oman's six coastal governorates, North and South Al Batinah, Muscat, South Sharqiya, Al Wusta and Dhofar governorates have rich varieties of mangroves.
Researches are ongoing to identify its values and importance to our ecology and it was found that mangrove trees absorb Co2 six times more than any other tree does, a decade ago.
"We have plans to begin next research on accounting the Co2 storage in these trees by 2023, 2024. Works are ongoing to protect and monitor the mangrove forest and it's imperative that all segments of the society shall contribute to preserving it to benefit from it in wise and sustainable ways," Al Busaidi added.
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