Abu Dhabi
Mangroves are an integral part of the UAE’s ecosystem and are home to a rich biodiversity of plant and animal species. The UAE’s coastlines are dotted with mangrove belts. However, their fragile ecosystem is under serious threat due to pollution and littering.
The litter that unmindful visitors leave on the beaches is washed by the tides onto these mangrove belts. This trash covers the roots of the mangroves, choking them in the process. This litter also affects the varied fauna that live amongst the mangroves, which are unable to survive among in this sea of plastic.
Youth organisation Green Hope promotes biodiversity conservation as one of its core areas of work. Green Hope conducted an awareness camp for its members on mangrove conservation, as part of which, its members kayaked to a mangrove belt on the eastern shoreline near Abu Dhabi.
Armed with trash bags, its youth members foraged deep into the mangroves and collected huge amounts of litter. Glass, cans, iron pipes, plastic items of all shapes and colour, and rotting cardboard were among the things that the young environmentalists collected from the mangrove belt, leaving it litter-free for the moment.
We collected eight large bags of trash, with a total weight of more than 60kg.
It was oppressively hot inside the mangrove belts but this did not deter the Green Hope team, as they spent several hours collecting the trash.
I feel that as responsible members of civil society, it is imperative that we do not litter our beaches and coastlines, as the damage it causes to the ecosystem is immense and often, irreversible.
Kyle, 16, is the head of operations at Green Hope. He said: “Despite the heat inside the mangroves, our team was undeterred – we really enjoyed this close contact with Nature and our young team members were happy to make a sustainable impact on preserving the biodiversity of the mangroves.”
Green Hope conducts these mangrove cleanups twice a year in a bid to maintain the fragile balance of the ecosystem.
— The reader is the founder president of youth organisation Green Hope, in Dubai.
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