Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration Model
Mangroves work as a buffer zone between the terrestrial and marine systems, preserve the shore, and protect it from corrosion in addition to protecting it from immersion resulting from sea level rise. The beds of mangroves are important habitats for a wide range of fish, birds, and crustaceans due to their structural complexity, food, shelter, and protection from predators that they provide. They are highly interconnected within the ecosystem and host a rich and diverse range of associated species, providing considerable value not only to human communities but also to animals and other species, such as birds and many marine and terrestrial animals.
As part of their Global Climate Solutions Partnership International, banking giant HSBC collaborated with the AUC's Center for Applied Research on the Environment and Sustainability (CARES) to implement the project “Developing a Participatory Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration Model as a Nature-Based Solution to Climate Change (MERS)”.
The project commenced in 2021 and is a five-year project that will contribute to greenhouse gas mitigation, climate change adaptation, and resilience, as well as the development of sustainable economic value and is carried out in the Red Sea Governorate, where mangrove is dominantly spread along the western coastline of the Red Sea from ElGouna to Halayeb and Shalateen in the southern borders.
The five main pillars of the project are as follows
Mangrove Plantation
The projects aim to increase mangrove stands in selected degraded sites through plantation and restoration of mangrove seedlings, thus increasing carbon dioxide sequestration resulting in climate change mitigation; according to Global Mangrove Watch, the total organic carbon stored in Egypt mangroves is estimated at 0.20 Mt CO₂e with 0.01 Mt CO₂e stored in above-ground biomass and 0.19 Mt CO₂e stored in the upper 1m of soil.
MERS aims to increase the area of mangrove stands in selected degraded mangrove sites on the Red Sea coast by planting 10,000 new mangrove seedlings/year (a total of 50,000 seedlings) with community support. The plantation activities were carried out in the summer of 2023 in Hamata with the local community and in Safaga with the Youth from Safaga community as well.
AUC Plantation
MERS is planting an additional 10,000 seedlings of mangroves along the western Red Sea coast in Hamata, Wadi Elgemal Protectorate for AUC.
This initiative was conducted by AUC for its commitment to climate change by offsetting CO2 .
Climate-Smart Agri-Hub
Establishing a climate Smart Agri-Hub at CARES-AUC to act as a state-of-the-art research and training facility disseminating awareness about Mangroves in Egypt, transferring the knowledge harnessed to others, multiplying the impact, and driving public and private investment into climate action solutions.
Community Awareness and Participation
Ensuring the successful scalability of mangrove forest development projects by developing commercially viable business models in collaboration with the local communities to improve their livelihood and economic conditions thus increasing their resilience and adaptation to climate change; and developing a community participatory model that guarantees the active participation of local communities thus ensuring sustainability. The main goal of this pillar is to raise the awareness of the community in Marsa Alam and to disseminate the project activities among the interested parties.
Which includes the following initiatives;
Safaga Beach Clean-up – October 2023
Hamata School Awareness Session – October 2023
Cairo Water Week 2023
Economic Empowerment
Economic empowerment of the local community of Marsa Alam, through raising awareness and capacity building to kick off two businesses around the mangroves. The first project is the Ecotourism project. The project is in collaboration with the Hamata community NGO and the Wadi-Elgemal protectorate.
GIS Platform
Developing a GIS-based knowledge platform on mangrove forests, CO2 sequestration, and biodiversity conservation to break barriers to investment in climate action by bridging the lack of information gap and offering an inventory of ideas and lessons learned from the project.
