Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Mangrove Plantation- A great way to offset carbon emmissions

Mangroves are UAE's the most bio diverse geographical feature. In past, locals depend on mangroves for food and wood (for fire, construction material etc). Even marine life is dependent on it, fish population cultivate in mangroves and once they are old enough, fish venture into oceans. Mangroves provide habitat to many animal species. Mangroves protect coast from erosion and tidal waves. Recently it is found out that mangroves hold 3-5 times as much carbon‬ as the same area of rainforest! So mangroves help to reduce global warming.
Read more to know more about UAE's mangroves.
Dubai Mangrove Planting Event

Last week when I came to know about mangrove planting event in Dubai, I grabbed the opportunity. I have planted trees before many time, but it was my first mangrove plantation experience.
The event was organized by EMEG (Emirates Marine Environmental Group) and PATT foundation.

As we all arrived at EMEG Ghantoot reserve, where we could see mangroves around us and ocean at short distance, we were all transported to plantation site. After demonstration we were ready to plant 1 year old Avicennia Marina, a species of mangrove tree in silky sand under water in mangrove. We were told to plant the shrubs at least 1 meter apart. By digging the silk sand, inserting the roots, covering and then pressing it to fix it, that was all that easy. The group planted total 1000 plants. Luckily there was breeze coming from sea so it was not very hot that afternoon.
Mud Crabs
During planting we came across mud crabs, those were tiny cute things, when they crawl on your hands it tickles. Hannah from EMEG told us about mangrove crabs, which can climb on mangrove tree. There were other insects and worms too. No doubt mangroves are habitat for birds too. Mangroves are a natural habitat for 75% of all tropical juvenile commercial fish species. Though the planting mangroves was little messy activity, it was great fun. This definitely is a great educational eco-activities for families.

Avicennia Marina is also known as gray mangrove. Their aerial roots allow the plant to absorb oxygen, which is deficient in its habitat. It has very high saline tolerance as well as high sun, wind, pest and disease tolerance. It means these mangrove plants don't need fresh water or irrigation, or any maintenance; natural salty sea water is sufficient for them to thrive.
Avicennia Marina
Avicennia Marina captures carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and stores them as carbon. This process is called carbon sequestration, and it helps control global warming by reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Therefore mangroves act as Carbon Sink! These carbon storing mangroves (whole system of plants, water body, soil) are also called as Blue Carbon Ecosystems. Abu Dhabi's Environmental Agency has demonstrated building a Blue Carbon project.

UAE is blessed with many khors- lagoons, marshes and mangroves. Some of them are developed or damaged or relocated and some of them are conserved. Mangroves are not only beneficial to keep the balance of local ecosystem but also to reduce carbon footprint of UAE, this prompts the need to plant more and more mangroves and arrange many such events.


After planting 1000 mangroves

Monday, August 17, 2015

Eco friendly Forever Living products

Hello my readers! In my quest of finding eco-friendly products I came across Forever Living products. Sometime back I wrote review of Forever Living's Aloe Vera Gelly and listed it in our Green Directory, today I am going to share about other products of Forever Living which are eco-friendly and equally useful.

Biodegradable Multipurpose Detergent

One of the most eco friendly product is Multipurpose Detergent (MPD). It can be used for washing pets, clothes, dishes, car, floor, carpet, bathroom etc. This detergent contains no phosphorus and is biodegradable i.e broken down by natural processes, thus reducing pollution in our waterways. This is gentle on hand and cleans clothes, dishes etc very well. It comes in concentrate, so we need to dilute it according to their instructions and can use 1 bottle for more than a month. I even tried it to remove grease stains and it worked well. I would definitely recommend this specially to wash children and baby clothes as their skin is sensitive and residual of harmful chemicals can cause reaction to their soft skin.

The other Forever Living products, which I tried are not as close to natural form of aloe vera as Aloe Vera Gelly. But they are non toxic and I had such great experience using them that I will share it with you anyway.

Aloe Propolis creme was equally good too. It worked well on my dry skin as moisturizer and a rash. I would highly recommend this cream. I also used this as moisturizer and diaper rash cream for my son and saw good result without any adverse effect on his skin.


Biodegradable Soap and Shampoo
The Ph- balanced Aloe Jojoba shampoo and conditioner, pleasantly fragrant Aloe Hand and Face Soap were very gentle on skin and you definitely feel pampered and it is biodegradable too. I never came across a product which is great quality, luxury and eco-friendly at the same time.
The Aloe makeup remover is oil free and gentle, leaves your skin non-irritated. In my opinion, you just need to use it generously.

Forever Living have many more Aloe Vera and Bee Propolis based products. The products I tried were non toxic, gentle on skin and mainly eco-friendly. I had such great experience using them that I am now registered and independent distributer of Forever Living products. If you are interested in knowing more about these products or want to order them in UAE please like FB page and feel free to contact.

I am currently building a forever living team here in UAE so if you are interested in legal home based business either part time or full time then contact me for more info. Otherwise just keep reading Green Living in Dubai ;-).

Forever Living Products