New drive launched to plant 2mn mangrove seedlings

New drive launched to plant 2mn mangrove seedlings

Muscat: The Environment Authority, represented by the Directorate General for Nature Conservation, launched a new campaign to plant two million mangrove seeds in the governorates of North Al Batinah, South Al Sharqiyah and Al Wusta.

The campaign aimed at preserving and protecting the ecosystems in coastal wetlands and raising their efficiency through the implementation of a number of projects to achieve the operational goals approved by the authority’s plan related to the work of the national initiative to plant 10 million trees.

Badr bin Saif Al Busaidi, in-charge of managing the work of the Wetlands Management Department at the Environment Authority, said that the campaign will be implemented in two phases.

The first stage of seed collection started from the Qurum Natural Reserve in the Governorate of Muscat and lasted exactly 14 days. The seeds were transported to the target sites through controlled methods and kept in air-conditioned places at a temperature of 23 to 26 degrees Celsius to avoid damage.

He added that the second stage was done by planting seeds and targeting 4 sites with a total area of about 90 hectares, which is equivalent to 900,000 square metres, indicating that the work lasted 17 days through field teams working according to