Planting mangroves in Abu Dhabi’s Jubail Mangrove Park

[Grooy music] Hello meet Elvis It's time for another adventure [Theme Music] Welcome back for another adventure. Through my many expeditions I've fallen in love with the natural world. Amazing landscapes, beautiful scenery, are magnets for tourism but of course with this comes our responsibility to ensure that we preserve the environment Today I'm taking us on an adventure to the nation's capital, Abu Dhabi to see how they're combining tourism with conservation to preserve the nation's oldest natural habitat [Funky Music] So I've just arrived here at Jubail mangrove park and I'm going to be taking a bit of a tour with my friend Usama. This must be Usama here. How are you? Nice to meet you, so what are we doing today? We'll be taking a walk all around Jubail mangrove park just learning a little bit about

mangroves and its effect in our environment. This is a two kilometer walkway with six different stations. In each station we have a visual representations of different factors regarding our environment and the mangrove trees It's amazing because you feel like you're in the thick of a forest almost like in a rainforest, but then you see that we we're still within the parameters of the city of Abu Dhabi. So if you put it into perspective it's about 24 football pitches So Brian you've been given a mandate by the government to plant a certain number of trees sonwhat's your mission? So we're really lucky in fact we're part of the whole Abu Dhabi idea for planting more trees Hi I'm Brian Parry, I'm the operations manager for Quest for Adventure The ideal of doing it with the Khalifa

empowerment programme is that we plant 50 000 trees for the 50th anniversary of the UAE 50 years of the UAE, that's what they tell me. 50 years since the country was born. But the history here goes far beyond that The trees that we see around us now, were they naturally here or they've been planted through your plantation project? A lot of them are natural but a lot of them will date back to about 40 50 years ago where Sheikh Zayed mandated that we should add to the existing forests, so especially here on Jubail Island there was a large planting project many years ago, that enhanced the forest that's already here, but the forest that's already here could be up to five to seven thousand years old So you're a bit of an adventure enthusiast already,

that's why I thought it'd be good for you to come along but is the see your thing because I hear you're more of a mountain expert Yes but mountaineering was more of a statement, a sense of proving to myself that I can do something because whenever I told people oh I was gonna climb this mountain or that mountain the reaction was like, really? but you're a Saudi girl? My name is Raha Moharrak. I'm from Saudi Arabia and I'm an adventure athlete So I wanted to really truly prove to myself that I am more than what what people expected and I'm more than the stereotype and it kind of snowballed into a mountaineering career, seven summits, 14 expeditions just like Everest hey? Let's see how good she is at planting trees [Grovvy Music] Let's go guys.

I will show you where to plant these trees Right so we plant them in the water or just sort of? On the line with the water Hello my name is Maria Jose Martin. I'm a biologist and I did my master's in biodiversity conservation Before we plant them, what do you know about trees in general plants? Photosynthesis Photosynthesis, so they've got leaves that are green and they take the sunlight and then they take carbon dioxide and put out oxygen Okay so these trees, because they live in a really hard environment. Salty water, it's very sunny. They take three to five times more carbon dioxide than a rain forest, so actually you are like breathing three to five times more pure air than any other part of the world. That's pretty cool huh? These are like the

cure to global warming One of them yes, definitely We're really helping out hear then The reason why the mangroves are an important part of the world's ecosystem, is we need something to help offset the carbon and the other emissions that we're causing onto the planet, and here in the Middle East our trees grow so strong and take so much carbon out of the system, that if we add more we can help keep the planet cool Hello meet Elvis Elvis? Who names a mangrove tree after a rock and roll star? Well you name yours Elvis, I'll name mine Ringo He was a good drummer So ready? Perfect! Let's go to dig a little bit Now this is really gritty and sandy, it's not like soil for example or mud that usual plants are in. So are

they sort of evolved to live in sandy waters So these trees, obviously they live in salty water so they have a lot of adaptations to them. One of them it's the roots They are very special when they are taking the water, they just filter it, but still a little bit of salt comes in the tree, so they just like take it out through the leaves We have two types of roots. First it goes down vertically so that's the first root we call it the support root So that's like a normal tree? That's like a normal tree it goes downwards yeah, and after it does that it would go also sideways. When it goes sideways it would entangle with other trees, so together they hold each other like a family and they anchor themselves They're a

little bit like hippies. They're all holding each other's hands Exactly happy family. So all that you see over here are actually the roots of the tree and they're called the new metaphors. It would help the tree taking more carbon dioxide from the environment and use it as energy of course and then it also takes a little bit of oxygen as a secondary source of energy, when the tide comes in and it allows the tree to breathe Like snorkels? basically exactly like snorkels Mangrove ecosystem have a lot of biodiversity around them. You have a lot of bird species, you have a fishes, especially the babies this act as a nursery, so in terms of biodiversity they are very rich I see lots of crabs around why is that? They're called the farmers of the sea. They

move the soil around. It allows the soil not to get rigid So they're quite key in the whole ecology of the mangroves? Definitely. When we first opened the boardwalk we had a lot of people. It scared away all the birds and the birds eat the crabs. When you scare away the birds you over populate crabs and crabs eat a lot of leaves. Everything is a balance and we try to keep that balance With love for your Elvis and Ringo. So you put it in the hole and then if you want you can use your hands and just cover it Do I think I'm a better tree planter? First of all he would put the tree in wonky and i was looking at him like oh my god, do you need a leveler? Do you see

the new metaphor? Huh? And then he put in the stuff like very unceremoniously Is that a well planted tree? It's perfect. He will grow big and save the world So I've got to now tag that onto Google maps as Paris' mangrove tree and then it will be findable for the rest of my life Alright Elvis, with all the love in the world I send you out to save it You've done this before I think Maybe I'm a little bit better than him but I appreciate him for inviting me to come here So if I want to actually name it on Google do I have to call Google? No! How is that even a question? How does it work It's less complicated. You just put your finger on it, you get a tab that says label

and then you put all the information you want on it Paris' mangrove tree called Ringo We will take as many people as want to come, 60 to 30 every session across the island, in different planting locations but it's a voluntary project. You have to book so the more people come the better So what is the biggest threat to the mangroves The biggest threat is always construction and human activity. Some of the UAE plantations were completely removed but they're gradually coming back where people now, 30-40 years later from the early construction have started to rebuild the forests that are close to even some of the urban locations By planting one tree you have left a little mark that will hopefully in 20 years give back This tiny little act can hopefully inspire others and also myself

to always think to do small things with big love Well I am exhausted but that was a great day so i'll see you at the next adventure [Theme music]