Managing Mangroves
Aramco Board of Directors visits Mangrove Eco-Park in Ras Tanura
Opened to the public in January, the park is hoped to welcome more than 100,000 people annually.
Aramco’s Board of Directors visited the company’s innovative Mangrove Eco-Park in Ras Tanura recently to celebrate the first public facility in the Kingdom dedicated to the preservation of mangrove forests.
The park is an integral part of our initiative to plant and manage millions of mangrove seedlings in the Kingdom and across the world. Mangrove forests play a vital role promoting biodiversity and ecosystems to assist in mitigating climate change.
IR 4.0 AI technology
As well as receiving a presentation detailing Aramco’s Biodiversity and Environmental Stewardship Program, visitors experienced rooftop observation decks and boardwalks, and were welcomed at the Eco-Park’s technical laboratory — a facility that uses advanced IR 4.0 and AI technology to conduct studies related to carbon sequestration and storage in mangroves. Board members also had the opportunity to participate in planting mangrove trees at the park’s nursery.
Longest mangrove boardwalk
The 64-km2 park, which opened to the public in January, protects one of the last naturally occurring old growth mangrove forests in the Eastern Province and features the longest mangrove boardwalk (at 400 meters in length) in the Kingdom. More than 100 species of birds are observed within the park.
Aramco’s Environmental Protection, Community Services, and Public Affairs teams collaborate to promote the park and attract visitors. The campaign is targeting annual visitation of more than 100,000 people, and initiatives include developing content across social media platforms to reach a target audience of 18 million.
To date, more than 40,000 people have visited the park and have benefited from programming and educational initiatives to heighten awareness of mangrove forests and their unique benefits.
Breadth of the Kingdom
With operations spanning the breadth of the Kingdom, Aramco believes that the protection and preservation of our natural environment for future generations is of vital importance.
In addition to their role protecting biodiversity and preventing erosion and storm surges, mangroves are an important carbon sink, and they sequester carbon much faster and more permanently than terrestrial forests.
Aramco has planted more than
13.3 million mangrove seedlings around the Kingdom, in the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea. This is a key part of the company’s larger goal to plant 300 million mangroves in Saudi Arabia and 350 million mangroves outside the Kingdom by 2035.
Caption for top photo: Members of the Board of Directors including president and CEO Amin Nasser are joined by corporate and executive management as they tour the Mangrove Eco-Park in Ras Tanura. (Photos by Moayed A. Alqattan/MPD)
