The Blue Carbon Challenge on UpLink project can harness the potential of blue carbon markets.
The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has announced that its Blue Carbon Environmental and Social Responsibility Project, in collaboration with ENGIE and Distant Imagery, has been selected among 12 UpLink Ocean Top Innovations.
The drone technology developed by Distant Imagery for the EAD was one of the winners of the Blue Carbon Challenge, which was launched by Friends of Ocean Action, Uplink and the Mangroves Working Group. Conservation International, Coastal Oceans Research and Development – Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa, REV Ocean, and GIB Asset Management were also part of the effort as supporting partners.
The Blue Carbon Challenge on UpLink recognises innovative solutions, projects, and enabling tools that can harness the potential of blue carbon markets to support environmental conservation, habitat restoration, and coastal management for people, nature, and help combat climate change.
The selected 12 UpLink Ocean Top Innovators will receive technical support and valuable connections to implement their projects.
The Blue Carbon Project, undertaken by EAD in partnership with ENGIE and Distant Imagery, involves striving to plant more than 35,000 mangrove seeds in the Mirfa Lagoon in Abu Dhabi, using highly innovative drone planting technology.
This project aligns with the recent ambition by the UAE entitled the Abu Dhabi Mangrove Initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Office and Prince William, Duke of Edinburgh in February of this year.
Ahmed Al Hashmi, Executive Director – Terrestrial & Marine Biodiversity on the occasion said: “At EAD, we are always striving to work using innovative and state-of-the-art technology for the implementation of our projects and being recognised by Uplink for our Blue Carbon Project is a reflection that we are on the right path.
“Our project was very ambitious and pioneering because it had never been done before in the region, and through using cutting edge drone technology to plant mangroves we are striving for high success rates for restoration.
“Blue Carbon – carbon stored in aquatic ecosystems, like mangrove forests and seagrass beds, has the potential to store five times as much carbon per square foot as terrestrial ecosystems. Through projects like ours we will be able to reduce emissions and capture carbon in natural carbon sinks offering a transitional step to Net-Zero by 2050, which is one of the main goals of the UAE.
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