New Mangrove trees bring hope to biodiversity in Egypt

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Thousands of newly planted mangroves have become home to fish in Egypt's Red Sea coast - a win for the program implemented to revive biodiversity, protect coastlines and fight the climate crisis. 

After decades of deforestation, merely fragments totaling around 500 hectares remained and biodiversity loss became a threat to the local marine life. 

Sayed Khalifa, the head of Egypt's agriculture syndicate and who is leading mangrove replanting efforts, labeled the plants as a "treasure" on account of their ability to grow and adapt in salt water where drought is not an issue. "It's an entire ecosystem," Khalifa said. "When you plant mangroves, marine life, crustaceans and birds all flock in."

Khalifa's team is growing thousands of seedlings in a nursery, with the aim to replant and cover 210 hectares on the Red Sea, which accounts for 65% of tourism, and the Sinai coast, but Khalifa has bigger dreams of extending the circumference even larger than that. 

Part of a $50,000-a-year government-backed initiative launched five years ago, the trees "punch above their weight" by absorbing five times more carbon than forests, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), proving their resilience and benefit for fighting the climate crisis as they also filter out contaminated water and act as a natural barrier against rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions, shielding coastal residences from storms.

Protecting mangroves, per the UNEP, is considered a thousand times cheaper than building seawalls over the same distance. Over a third of mangroves have been lost globally, with up to an 80% loss in some coastlines of the Indian Ocean

Britain's University of Reading's Mangrove expert Niko Howai said past governments had not appreciated the significance that these plants have to offer, by being lured into projects of coastal developments instead. 

In Egypt's case, "mass tourism activities and resorts, which cause pollution," in addition to oil drilling damaged mangrove habitats, according to Kamal Shaltout, a botany professor at Egypt's Tanta University who also warned that restoration efforts "will go to waste" if the leading factors are not taken into consideration. 

Shaltout said, "There are areas that have been completely destroyed," including the resort area of Hurghada, although no specific information exists as to how much was lost. However, in a 2018 study by Shaltout and other researchers discovered that the scale of damage, "probably far exceeds what could be replaced by any replanting programme for years to come."

"Mangroves are hardy, but they are also sensitive, especially as saplings," Howai said. "Intermingling mangrove reforestation with existing development projects is not impossible, but it is going to be more challenging."

Shaltout relayed that for the efforts to be successful in their objective, tourist operators must be involved by tasking resorts with replanting areas as well.

"It could even come with certain tax benefits, to tell them that just like they have turned a profit, they should also play a role in protecting nature," the botanist said.

Egypt is due to host the COP27 climate conference next month. 

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