The Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi (EAD) has successfully planted one million mangrove seeds using drones, as part of the first phase of a drone mangrove plantation project supporting the Abu Dhabi Mangrove Initiative.
The Abu Dhabi Mangrove Initiative that was announced in February 2021, and which is implemented by EAD with a series of local, regional and international partners, supports Abu Dhabi’s ambitious plans to establish the emirate as a global hub for research and innovation in support of the conservation of mangroves, and focuses on the importance of mangroves for carbon sequestration to combat climate change.
The initiative supports the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment’s target, announced during COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, that unveiled a nationwide plan to plant 100 million mangroves by 2030. Following this, in February of this year, the Abu Dhabi Mangrove Initiative was launched.
EAD is the first organisation to utilise and plant mangroves at a large-scale utilising ecological principles, enhanced by drones. The planting of one million seeds follows a successful initial phase implemented by EAD in partnership with ENGIE, the global energy company, and Distant Imagery, a drone engineering solutions company.
This initial phase focused on planting mangroves via drone in 2020, with up to a 48 per cent success rate. EAD then scaled up the project, with one million mangroves planted via drones at different locations around Al Mirfa, in Al Dhafra Region.
The use of drone technology to plant mangroves has several advantages as the environmental footprint of the methodology is low, since it removes the need of intense labour, and the need of sapling transportation. It is also cost effective as it reduces the overall price of mangrove planting, eliminates the need of mangrove nurseries and associated costs, and facilitates reaching remote and difficult areas. The project is also running a trial on incorporating machine learning for future monitoring phases.
EAD plans to further evolve its methodologies and technology. Data has shown that the growth of the seed in-situ using drones has a success rate that remains stable over three years.
In Abu Dhabi, plantation programmes have helped increase the range of mangroves. The increase of mangrove areas in Abu Dhabi was more than 35 per cent, and is the result of plantation and restoration programmes, as well as protection laws and regulations that ensure the sustainability of environmental ecosystems.
In the past 10 years, EAD and its key stakeholders, from both the government and private sector have planted more than 15 million mangroves along the coast of Abu Dhabi.