EA plants 1,000 mangrove saplings in Dhofar campaign
The Environment Authority (EA) on Tuesday planted 1,000 mangrove saplings in Dhofar governorate as part of its project to cover the country’s coastline with 1mn mangrove trees.
The mangrove plantation campaign was conducted in Khor Fagara in Al Shwaimiya area in the wilayat of Shaleem and Halaniyat Islands.
The EA said the campaign carried out by the Environment Department in Dhofar governorate was in support of its efforts to preserve and protect environmental systems and rehabilitate degraded lands.
According to the EA, several efforts, including the implementation of the national initiative to plant 10mn trees, were being made to achieve protection and sustainability of vegetation and environmental cover across the sultanate.
‘Mangroves are considered to have great benefits in maintaining the ecological balance and preserving beaches from erosion and helping the growth of commercially valuable fish and other marine creatures in addition to being landscaped areas,’ the EA stated.
The plantation programme was part of a project which started in 2001 and aims to plant 1mn seedlings of mangrove trees on sultanate’s coasts within 20 years, the EA said.
The authority has already planted over 680,000 saplings in 30 khors in various coastal areas since then.
In January 2020, the EA in cooperation with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) launched an initiative to plant 10mn wild tree saplings in the next ten years. The authority said the wild tree species will include ghaf, al samar and sidr, for which nurseries are being set up.