UAE Firm Licensed for Largest Mozambique Mangrove Restoration Project

AFRICAN BUSINESS AND ECONOMYSeptember 5, 2024 at 12:55 PM UTC

TLDR

Blue Forest, a UAE-based company led by former BP executive, to plant 200 million mangrove trees in Mozambique, largest initiative in Africa.
Project aims to restore and protect mangrove forests, financed by pre-selling carbon emissions offsets.
Founder Vahid Fotuhi highlights importance of early-stage carbon financing in funding the $60 million project.

Blue Forest, a UAE-based company founded by a former BP executive, has won a license to restore and protect mangrove forests in Mozambique in an initiative deemed the largest of its kind in Africa.

Starting in November, the company plans to plant 200 million mangrove trees across an area twice the size of Singapore, helping to finance the project by pre-selling carbon emissions offsets.

Vahid Fotuhi, who founded Blue Forest in January 2022, stated that pre-selling carbon credits allow the company to tap into early-stage carbon financing to fund the $60 million project.

Key Takeaways

Mangroves are highly efficient at absorbing carbon, sequestering up to 10 times more than terrestrial trees, which makes them an effective tool for fighting global warming. These carbon credits, equivalent to a ton of carbon dioxide, will be sold to emitters looking to offset their emissions. The MozBlue project spans 1,500 kilometers of coastline in Mozambique’s Zambezia and Sofala provinces and is expected to create 5,000 jobs. Over its 60-year lifespan, it will remove an estimated 20.4 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

Mozambique

Blue Forest

Mangrove Restoration

Climate Change

Carbon Credits