*Estimated carbon sequestration is 20 kg of CO2e per tree accumulated over five years, based on low estimates of dry and humid tropical growth rates from global restoration databases.
Actual carbon impact of each Priceless Planet Coalition restoration project will be assessed after five years based on data collected throughout the monitoring process.
Emirates Nature, in association with WWF, aims to regenerate mangrove ecosystems through the Priceless Planet Coalition implemented by Mastercard in collaboration with Conservation International and the World Resources Institute. The project’s goal is to restore approximately 10 hectares of mangrove and associated coastal ecosystems in the Northern Emirates over the next two to six years.
Coastal blue carbon ecosystems — such as mangroves — can help reduce the risks and impacts of climate change while providing multiple co-benefits: they offer critical habitats for biodiversity, enhance local fisheries production and protect coastal communities from erosion and storms. Yet mangroves face many threats, including deforestation, coastal development, pollution and climate change.
Coastal seascape, encompassing a variety of habitats, including mangroves, seagrass and mudflats.
Tree planting
The planting of seedlings over an area with little or no forest canopy to meet specific goals.
Assisted natural regeneration
The exclusion of threats (i.e., grazing, fire, invasive plants) that had previously prevented the natural regrowth of a forested area from seeds already present in the soil, or from natural seed dispersal from nearby trees. This does not include any active tree planting.
Mangrove tree restoration
Specific interventions in the hydrological flows and/or vegetative cover to create or enhance the ecological function of a degraded mangrove tree site.
The most common and dominant mangrove species in the UAE is the gray or white mangrove (Avicennia marina).