By AFP
Mozambique, whose coastline has been ravaged by rising sea levels and tropical storms, announced plans on Tuesday to plant over 100 million trees to restore its battered mangroves.
Large portions of mangroves along the country’s 2,500-kilometre (1,500-mile-long) coastline have been decimated by high seas and the harvesting of firewood for charcoal.
The Ministry of Sea and Inland Waters said it plans to plant up to 100 million trees over the next three decades in the central provinces of Sofala and Zambezia spanning 185,000 hectares of mangrove forests.
“This 185,000 is effectively the size of Paris, Manhattan and London all put together. It’s never been done at this scale,” said Vahid Fotuhi whose Gulf-based company Blue Forest, is partially funding the project and providing mapping technology.
The project, which will use satellite imagery to spot badly deforested areas in need of planting, aims to offset some 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, equivalent to taking 50,000 fossil-fuel-burning cars off the road.
(With input from AFP)
